The Sealing Art
by Boby335
Summary: The Art of Sealing is well known for it's many applications. from stopping rampaging Bijuu to cutting off one's Chakra completely. For Naruto Uzumaki it would prove an invaluable tool.
1. Chapter 1

I've decided to write a Naruto to sate my thirst for curiosity. This will start during the Chunin Exams and begin to differ during that time. This won't get updated quite as often because of my other fanfic, Cell's Shadow. The fact of the matter is that I have been trying to find more adventure fics for Naruto, but I've been coming up short.

Anyways since I really like the idea of Naruto learning Sealing Jutsu I'll have him doing that along with Summoning and maybe a few Elemental Jutsu's thrown in, maybe five at the most. I don't want him to be super powerful or Godlike at all. What good is a story where the main character is the strongest and there is no struggle to learn or gain his talents. That's my opinion anyways.

Onto the pairing, Naruto and Hinata. That is what the pairing is in this fic and it won't change. Now this won't come into effect until after the Timeskip simply because I just don't see thirteen year olds having a romantic relationship, it's really creepy a lot of the time.

Finally I will be putting Sasuke as a villain in because he simply makes the ultimate villain for Naruto. I know some people will claim this is bashing for putting him as the villain, but to tell you the truth it fits. Think of it; they used to be friends and were alone growing up. Yin and Yang, Vash the Stampede and Knives Millions, Spike Spiegal and Vicious, Strawhat Luffy and Blackbeard Teach, Jiraiya and Orochimaru, Hashirama and Madara; it fits so perfectly that it's almost like looking at a two pieced puzzle.

Naruto is OCC in a way and this is an AU.

Act I: Chunin Exams

Chapter 1: Release.

In an average, if not a little dirty, apartment in a not so average village was a boy. This boy was not a boy in same sense as other boys. This boy was a Shinobi of Konohagakure, yet not only that, he was what was known as a Jinchuriki, a human sacrifice. On the tenth of October thirteen years ago this boy was used as a container to hold the rampaging tailed beast known as the Kyuubi.

This boy was known as Naruto Uzumaki. He was the resident troublemaker in village until recently when a kid known as Konohamaru Sarutobi took up his mantle as prankster. Now he was, for all intents and purposes, a Shinobi that had fought a Chunin and mastered an A-Rank Kinjutsu before he had made the rank of Genin, fought alongside his team against a group of rogue Shinobi led by the infamous Zabuza Momochi, and had recently made it to the finals of the Chunin exams.

Naruto was short for a thirteen year old with spiky blonde hair that was complimented by piercing blue eyes, but what stood out most on his face were three whisker marks on both sides of his face. Right at the moment he was wearing a white t-shirt with a red spiral pattern on his back while he also had on a pair of black shorts.

Currently Naruto was busy lying in his bed going over the events that had just occurred. From facing that freak in the Forest of Death to challenging Neji Hyuuga; it all played back in his head. There was one thing, though; he had just been blown off by his Sensei, Kakashi Hatake, and was left with a substitute teacher for the thirty day training period for the finals of the Chunin Exams.

He stewed in his anger and jealousy over what had just occurred. Why? Why was it always Sasuke Uchiha? The girl he had a crush on liked him, his sensei preferred him, but what he couldn't figure out is why? He moved from his bed to look out into the night from window to see a vicious thunderstorm brewing, "It doesn't matter anyways…" He said softly, not realizing that the man Kakashi had asked to teach Naruto was in the dark corner of the room watching him.

The man was tall and skinny with sunglasses covering his eyes while a black bandana covered his head. This man was named Ebisu and this wasn't his first run in with the boy known as Naruto Uzumaki. Earlier in the year he had met with him when his student, Konohamaru Sarutobi, had been following the older boy and pestering Naruto to teach him his special, 'Hokage Killer.' Ebisu was in the opinion that Naruto was a demon child. Like most of the other adults in Konoha that was all he saw until Konohamaru began to earnestly work hard to become a Shinobi.

Now he knew why the normally jubilant youth was depressed, but knew it wouldn't last. He started walking towards Naruto with an almost epithetical look covering his face. He still thought he was a brat, but he had seen that look on so many other Genin when something like this happened, "You know Naruto, one should always be aware of one's surroundings. It _is_ an integral part of our chosen profession." Startled Naruto turned to see Ebisu, who he had dubbed as the closet perv, right behind him.

"Oh, it's just you." The melancholic feel coming from the boy was spreading like an infection to Ebisu.

"I think… I think all I can say to this is tough break, kid." Ebisu went to a chair near his position and sat down, "I also think I can get you out that depressed state!" He said excitedly, "I'll start training you tomorrow morning, but you need to sleep and before that you need to go pay a visit to your sensei.

Naruto grit his teeth, "Why? It won't be like he would want to see me!" He mumbled out.

Ebisu looked at his new trainee with a serious face, "I won't train anyone that's feeling this low!" Th older Shinobi practically carried the boy out of his hospital bed and out the window, "I'll go with you if that makes things easier on you."

"Fine."

Kakashi sat looking at the gravestone with a haggard look. He was tired from thinking on his decision to teach Sasuke over Naruto, "Did I do the right thing Minato-Sensei?" He looked down from the gravestone to the ground. He had never wanted to get close to Naruto in the first place, but it had happened. The kid had always reminded him of his dead sensei, but it also reminded him that he had failed. He had failed at saving his sensei, failed at saving Obito, failed at saving Rin. For all the good he had done for Konoha he had done worse by his dead comrades.

Sure he was depressed about this, but he had a lot to be thankful about. He had his own team to take care of now. Kakashi thought about the earie parallels between himself and Sasuke and Obito with Naruto, "Hotheaded with aspirations of becoming Hokage… Life is strang isn't it, Obito?"

"Who's Obito?" Kakashi didn't even turn when he heard the voice of Naruto, but beckoned him to his side with a wave of his hand.

"Just a friend from my past, Naruto!" Kakashi smiled under his mask before turning back to the stone, "He died a long time ago, but he was a lot like you."

Naruto twisted his face before uttering, "You are one shitty sensei!" Kakashi chuckled at this.

"Of course I am! We all can't be good, you know?" He looked off towards the left to see a certain special Jonin standing there looking on at the two, "Already picked up the sensei I sent to you?"

"Yea," The Uzumaki child paused for brief moment of silence, "Why did you choose Sasuke? Do you like him more than me?"

Kakashi's eyes widened with shock; had it looked like that to his student? He looked down at the thirteen year old with a neutral face, "Well, to tell the truth, I resent all three of you for taking away my precious alone time, but I can't choose one of my cute little Genin over another for whom I like the best." He paused to see his student's reaction, "There are a few reasons why I'm teaching Sasuke, but the most relevant is that I have my Sharingan eye."

"Oh." Naruto didn't really get it, but he nodded in compliance.

"When this whole business is over with I'll teach you a Jutsu and I think for Sakura, maybe a Genjutsu?" That last question was mainly for Kakashi himself, "How does that sound?"

Naruto nodded with enthusiasm, "Alright Sensei!" Naruto started running back to Ebisu, but before he could he turned around and bowed towards the stone.

After his student left him Kakashi bowed his head towards the Memorial Stone then slowly walked off as the clouded sky began to release the rain it had been storing throughout the day.

In another part of the village another man was standing atop an enormous toad with a pen and paper in hand. This man was relatively tall man with a larger build than most along with waist long snow white hair that was tied in the back into a ponytail. He had a few wrinkles, but he still held some youth in his face, but what stuck out about him were his clothes. On his head was a horned headband with the kanji for oil dead center on it. On his torso was a green colored short shirt kimono along with matching pants that covered mesh armor.

This man was known simply as Jiraiya. He was one of the strongest Shinobi that Konohagakure had ever produced, but he had a few quirks to him, one was women. Right now he was watching the women of Konoha in the hot spring, taking notes for his books. Although as he was jotting down notes he saw a few drops of rain warp the paper and pen markings, "Well, shit."

The middle aged man next saw the women running inside to get out of the rain, "No! Don't go in now!" Jiraiya wined then he sighed. He figured it was time to go get something to eat, "Alright, Gamatsuya, I feel like ramen tonight, LET'S GO!" The toad nodded then hopped off in the direction of a certain ramen shop where a certain blonde boy was busy eating his second bowl of ramen.

While Ebisu had wanted to walk him home, Naruto had decided that he needed a few bowls of ramen before turning in for the night, "Keep 'em coming old man!"

Said old man was a rather portly middle aged man with really short hair. He wore a cooks outfit and was, at the moment, busy cooking another batch for one of his regular customers. He didn't even turn his head when heard the cloth parting, signaling that another customer had arrived, "Welcome, sir, how may I help you today?"

"I'll take a bowl of pork ramen with extra pork." Teuchi turned to see that it was none other than Jiraiya of the Sannin that was ordering.

"Good evening, Master Jiraiya! I didn't know that you made it back to the village!" Teuchi had known Jiraiya for a long time now, but he didn't come around as often as he used to.

Jiraiya started reminiscing about the wife of a certain student of his when all of a sudden he heard a demand from his fellow customer, "Can you hurry up with that ramen, old man? I don't have all night!" Much to the Sannin's surprise the rowdy customer to his right was none other than his estranged godson. He looked over the pint sized blonde boy before turning back to Teuchi.

"Don't be so rude, brat." A tick mark formed on Naruto's head.

He turned to the man that called him a brat, "Who you calling a brat, you old man!"

"OLD MAN!?" Jiraiya rushed to his feet in offense, "Don't you realize who I am!?"

"Someone that belongs in a nursing home?" Naruto replied.

Clearly offended now, and a little bit happy that he had a chance to show off, "Where once a man stood now in his place the legendary Sannin of the majestic toads stands above!" Jiraiya started dancing in the kabuki style with a _very_ proud smirk, "I am Lord Jiraiya!"

"Oh!" Naruto proclaimed with a hint of excitement.

"So you _have_ heard of me!" Jiraiya felt pride well up in his chest in knowing that his very own godson had heard of him.

"Nope! I just thought that your introduction was cool!" Naruto started to work on the bowl of ramen he had just received from the old ramen cook. Jiraiya settled down enough to start on his own bowl. After a silence had settled over the shop Naruto had finished his own bowl with a large smile, "Here you go old man!" He handed the cook enough ryo to pay for his two bowls then made his way out of the shop and into the rain.

"Have a nice night, Naruto!" Teuchi smiled then deposited the money inside his cash register, "Don't catch a cold in that rain, you hear me?"

"Yea, yea!"

Jiraiya hurriedly ate his ramen. Even though he had had little to no contact with his godson he wanted to know a little bit more about Naruto, "Wait up, kid!"

Naruto turned and had to admit he was a bit inquisitive about the older man, "Why are you following me?"

"I see that you're a Shinobi, maybe I could help you with something!" Jiraiya smiled at the young boy with an awkward chuckle.

"But I already have a sensei!" Naruto was now confused why this man was offering, but felt that he had to refuse.

"How about I come by to watch your training tomorrow?" Jiraiya was a little bit excited to see how far Naruto had come since he had last received a report from the Sandaime about his mission to Wave Country.

The boy seemed to fish for an answer in his head before finally answering, "Sure!" The boy wasn't one to pass up the chance to show off to anyone new.

Meanwhile in the Hokage Tower, Hiruzen had been watching the exchange between the two with a smile. He then looked towards the well-lit village with his smile fading. Something big was looming on the horizon and it didn't bode well for anyone in the village, himself included, '_Is it just Orochimaru or is it someone darker?_' Hiruzen had heard the reports from Jiraiya, but he didn't know how far the Akatsuki's reach had grown.

Many of the higher up's had known of Orochimaru's hatred for Konohagakure, but for this sudden push in the direction of war was curious to say the least. All he knew was that the key players would in some way be in the village in thirty days' time.


	2. Chapter 2

Well here we are with chapter two of The Sealing Art. Thank you those that reviewed, favorite, and followed this story, we have a long ways to go in this story so stick around and get ready for some Jiraiya Time, it's like Adventure Time, but with more perverted things, seals, toads, and instead of Jake the Dog we have Naruto the Genin. Anyways we'll see some training action from Naruto with both Jiraiya and Ebisu so get ready! We'll also get to see one of the reasons I put Shikamaru on the main character list.

I sometimes wonder why people overuse the whole Civilian Council idea. It gets really old after seeing it so many times… forget this author's useless complaints…

Another thing I won't be doing is spamming the Shadow Clone Cheat for training. Simply put when Naruto was creating the Rasenshurikan he was using Shadow Clones and a lot of them fell victim to the Kyuubi. It took Yamato to keep them from going wild.

I do not own Naruto.

Arc I: The Chunin Exams

Chapter 2: Training Begins!

Naruto had fallen asleep very quickly after he had made it home last night, but his sleep was now interrupted by very heavy, very loud knocks at his door. He wondered if it was his landlord or maybe it was that old woman next door coming to complain about the smells coming from his apartment. He didn't know, he didn't want to know, but he answered the door anyways. Standing in front of him was the old Kabuki dancer from last night, "Good Morning, Naruto!"

Jiraiya was slightly excited to see if he could teach him a thing or two, or at least supervise parts of his training. He was never truly apart of Naruto's life, but had always kept him safe from harm outside of Konoha. Today would be different, though. He would finally take up the mantle of Godfather, albeit secretly, of course, and train his Godson to be a good man and a great Shinobi. Before anymore could be said the tall, lanky Tokubetsu Jonin known as Ebisu appeared before the two, "Jiraiya-sama, what are you doing with Naruto?"

"I was going to observe the type of training that this young man will be receiving today!" Jiraiya replied with a lot of gusto. Ebisu sighed then scratched his head while thinking.

"What exactly do you want to see today, anyways?" Jiraiya put on a big goofy smile.

"Well I wanted to see the progress of an up and coming Shinobi!" Ebisu was still more than a bit curious as to why Jiraiya of the Sannin wanted to watch the progress of Naruto, but it had to do with Naruto holding the Kyuubi inside him, "What were you going to teach him, string bean?" Ebisu pulled out a scroll from his back pocket.

"I was going to teach him water walking and a Water Style Jutsu so he can at least keep his distance from The Hyuuga." Jiraiya nodded at how good of a plan that was. Naruto looked at the strange Kabuki dancer with eyes full of glee, '_Somebody is interested in how strong I've gotten? Dattebayo!_'

"That's some good reasoning, but if he ends up against that Uchiha this Jutsu will only be copied and used against him." Jiraiya replied with a serious face. Ebisu knew that was true, but he was hoping that that Gaara kid would beat the Uchiha, "Seals, however, can't be copied. They're perfect to use against anyone."

"I have a good idea, Jiraiya-sama," Ebisu paused for a second for dramatic effect, "Would you like to teach him a few seals to compliment the Jutsu I'm teaching him?" Trying to keep his giddiness to himself, Jiraiya was getting really excited to teach Naruto a seal or two.

"Why don't we have the kid run through a demonstration of what he can do so we can better analyze how to teach him," Besides being gifted in the art of sealing, Jiraiya had a passion for teaching, and this seemed to be his chance to teach his student's son.

While Jiraiya and Ebisu were planning for the month ahead Naruto had used Kawarimi to get out of the building. He was hungry and really bored! I mean all they were doing was just standing there talking instead of training him. With that in mind he headed to Ichiraku to buy some breakfast.

"**THAT BRAT!**" The two experienced Shinobi yelled out when they noticed that Naruto was gone.

At the moment the blonde Genin had started into his bowl of ramen, "Hey old man do you know anything about the kabuki dancer?"

Teuchi was busy cleaning a couple of bowls when he turned his head to answer the question, "Kabuki dancer?" It took him a moment to recall who it was that Naruto was asking about, "Oh! You mean Master Jiraiya? He's a very famous ninja that the Sandaime taught a long time ago."

Naruto perked up, "Gramps taught that guy? Why does he seem so goofy?"

The old cook chuckled, "As long as Master Jiraiya has been coming into this shop I've yet to find out why he's so _goofy_, but I can't deny any of the stories I've heard about how strong he is." Teuchi chuckled a bit, "You know he even taught the Yondaime Hokage when he was young!"

The young Genin was now impressed by the kabuki dancer, but he needed to eat now. Right now he was on his second serving thinking on what to do, but suddenly he felt a chill. A cold feeling of death was creeping up on his body, giving him goose bumps. He turned his head to the right, then to the left. Nothing. He looked over at two men crossing the street. Everything normal.

"Excuse me?" The blonde Genin heard a voice coming from the counter, and it didn't sound like Ayame or Teuchi. He looked down to see a goggle wearing toad with a leather jacket on, "My name is Gamasuke and I have been sent to retrieve one Naruto Uzumaki. Are you him?" Naruto would have found this funny if the toad wasn't going through a set of hand seals, "Well, are you him?" When Naruto nodded the toad finished with its' last hand seal and with a poof of smoke both the toad and Naruto were gone.

Training Ground Forty-Five was next to the Forest of Death and contained a small hot spring. It wasn't overly large, but it wasn't tiny either. Other than the hot spring, it contained a few striking posts, a number of craters made by stray Jutsu, and lots of shrubbery. The training ground was mainly used by Chunin squads practicing up before being sent on border patrols, but today it was barren, except for an old pervert and a Tokubetsu Jonin.

Ebisu now had a rough idea on how to train the brat, but he had to see what he could do before anything. As for Jiraiya he had started scribbling a few words in his little notebook before sighing, "Truth be told, Lord Jiraiya, I want to handle most of his training."

Jiraiya chuckled, "You can do that, but there're two things I want to teach him before the end of these thirty days." The Sannin paused his writing, "I want to teach him how to summon toads and a couple seals."

Ebisu's eyes widened, why did someone as famous as Jiraiya want to teach Naruto how to summon toads? To his knowledge Jiraiya had only taught Minato Namikaze to summon toads, what did this mean?

Naruto and the toad known as Gamasuke appeared, interrupting Ebisu's train of thoughts, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the escapee!" Jiraiya chuckled menacingly, "You try to run off before we can even get started! Gamasuke, thank you for finding this runaway!"

The toad stood up and gave Jiraiya thumbs up, "Now if you would mind paying me? I have tadpoles to feed, you know?" The toad sage tossed a bag, which looked like it had a bunch of insects inside it. The toad disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the three ninja behind.

"Before we begin, Naruto, I want to spar with you." Ebisu stated as he pushed his glasses up, "Let us begin!" The Tokubetsu Jonin ran at the Genin and threw a quick jab at the boy's stomach, but before the jab could connect he jumped back and drew his kunai. Naruto retaliated by throwing the kunai now at Ebisu, "Is that it?"

"NO!" Using the hand signs Naruto performed Kawarimi and sent his own punch at the Ebisu. To the boy's exasperation the older ninja had caught his fist. With a heave Ebisu had thrown Naruto a distance; to steady himself Naruto held up a hand sign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Although Naruto tried to use his favorite Jutsu nothing happened. Jiraiya's eyebrow raised as this shouldn't be a problem for the kid. From the reports he had read Naruto could literally create an army of Shadow Clones, but now he couldn't even perform it, "Stop!" Jiraiya called out, "I need to see something really fast."

Both the combatants walked towards the Sannin, "Alright, Naruto, did anything happen recently?"

Of course something had happened recently, "A lot of stuff happened!"

"Anything weird?" Sure the old man was fishing for something, but he had to find out why Naruto couldn't use his shadow clones.

"If you want weird," The boy started, "I got to fight a giant snake and then this lady that acted like a snake!"

Ebisu began to realize who Naruto was talking about, but Jiraiya knew right away that the boy had a run in with Orochimaru, to what end, though, was the question, "Can I see your stomach?"

"Why do you want to see my stomach?" It was kind of creepy to hear someone ask him this, "Are you some kind of pervert?"

Although the Sannin wanted to reply this was serious moment. Had his _old friend_ done something to the seal that housed the Kyuubi? If so then this might get messy, depending on the type of seal. Hopefully it was just a Five Elements Seal.

"Just listen to him, Naruto." Ebisu finally replied to the boy, "I promise he won't try anything perverted while I'm around!"

"How can I trust you? You're a closet pervert!" Naruto shot back.

Jiraiya bit his thumb and summoned a very _feminine_ male toad with big red lips, "Restrain the boy, Mr. Gamakiri!"

"Oh my, oh my!" Gamakiri's tongue shot out and grabbed poor Naruto by his legs, "What a cute little brat you have here, Jiraiya!"

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" Jiraiya pulled down the boy's shirt then looked down at him. Ebisu was really curious to see what Jiraiya was on about.

"Try molding your Chakra, brat." The goofy visage of the Sannin was gone and replaced by a serious look. Naruto complied and on his stomach the seal that held the Kyuubi came into along with a new seal, "Damn that Orochimaru! He placed a Five Elements Seal without even thinking on what could have happened if he had messed up!" Clearly this angered the Sannin, but Ebisu passed it off.

The Sannin's fingers began glowing as the kanji signs for wood, fire, earth, metal, and water almost with a burning sight. With a quick movement he jabbed his fingers onto the five points of the Five Elements Seal with some unneeded gusto.

Naruto fell limp when he was hit as all the air in his lungs was expelled at once. Gamakiri let the boy go then blew a kiss towards him, "I think that it's time to go! Unlike you, Jiraiya, I have to catch up on some beauty sleep!" Gamakiri left in a puff of smoke, but before he did go he blew a kiss at Naruto.

Thoroughly creeped out by the toad the boy stood up, albeit with the wind still knocked out him, and looked at the two men in front of him. Ebisu had taken the roll of an observer, but had taken a keen interest in Jiraiya's own interest in Naruto, "Try making a couple shadow clones now."

Naruto repeated his earlier attempt, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" This time two clones popped up, "I can make clones again!" It made him really happy.

"Now it's time to start training before it gets too late!" The boisterous Shinobi exclaimed.

"But it's only eight in the morning!" The boy replied with an exasperated tone, "Do I really have to do this?"

"Yes, really! Now get to practicing your water walking!" Jiraiya scolded the boy, but on the inside laughed at him. He used the Body Flicker Jutsu to disappear in a puff of smoke; his next objective was the women's side of the hot spring back in Konoha.

With Jiraiya gone the keen observer had made the full on transition to a respectable teacher, "I seem to have been caught up in Master Jiraiya's pace, but no longer!" Ebisu said to himself, "Okay, Naruto, you do know how to tree climb, don't you?" Ebisu asked when they got to the hot spring.

Naruto just grinned like a maniac, "Of course! Kakashi-Sensei taught it to us back on our first C-Rank mission!"

"Good because you will need what you learned there to learn this." Ebisu just grinned then set Naruto to the task of learning to water walk, "Apply the basics of tree climbing to the surface of the water."

Naruto tried climbing on top of the water, and for a second he held himself up on the boiling water's surface. Yet as soon as a ripple was sent through the water the boy fell in the water, "DAMMIT!" Naruto screamed as he felt the sudden heat.

"This might be a long day." Naruto's substitute teacher stated.

He was right! It had been nearly six hours and the only progress Naruto had made was by a mere ten seconds. Ebisu wondered how long it might take to actually get this down. As the Tokubetsu was wondering this Jiraiya puffed back into existence in front of Ebisu, "How did it go?"

"Horribly," Naruto fell back into the hot water, "Young Naruto has a grasp on tree walking just fine, but this, well let's just say that this will come slowly to him. Tomorrow I'll give him a few pointers, but now we need to go eat something to replenish his strength, and mine." Ebisu disappeared in a puff of smoke much like Jiraiya had done before.

Naruto, meanwhile, was pulling himself out of the hot water yet again. Jiraiya looked at the small boy with a whole lot of glee. He hadn't been this excited since he taught Minato, "Come here Naruto it's time to learn something important!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Naruto called back while he winced at the pain he felt on his skin. He was sure he had, at least, been partially cooked, "So what're you going to do, Kabuki Dancer?" Jiraiya growled at the boy.

"I'm going to teach you about seals." Jiraiya pulled out a piece of paper and began to draw a simple storage seal, "Seals can do anything you can imagine them to do. The only limit is your own mind, Naruto." The air around the two was beginning to change, "From the Five Elements Seal to an explosive tag to a storage seal, and one can fight an entire battle and win with just seals." Jiraiya slowly drew the seal, "They can do so much more than that though." He put the seal face down on the ground then used a hand seal to activate it.

Slowly, but surely the ground was swallowed into the piece of paper. When Jiraiya released the seal all that was left was the piece of paper holding the seal and the small hole where the ground had been, "They can hold _anything_." He hinted towards Naruto's stomach, "What you, Naruto, are going to do is go to the weapon smith, pick up a bunch of this paper, ink, and a quill. Tell them to put it on my tab."

'_This guy sure is lazy!_' Naruto exclaimed in his head before running off to the village proper.

As soon as Naruto had arrived at the village he started to walk towards his destination. As the walk continued he saw someone familiar in the sea of people. Another Genin known as Shikamaru Nara was walking with a grimace on his face. His hands were in his pockets and he was grumbling. As Naruto neared him Shikamaru looked up from the ground to deepen his grimace towards Naruto, "What are you doing, Naruto?"

Shikamaru was a lanky preteen with a tired disposition. His hair had the look of a pineapple and he wore mesh armor under a short sleeved grey jacket with green edges, adorned on both the sleeves and the back with a circle with a line through it. While he looked, acted, and generally tried to be lazy this kid was a literal genius.

"Buying paper." Naruto chuckled at the lazy Genin, "How about you?"

"Hiding from my sensei." The two looked at each other then Shikamaru asked, "Lunch?"

"Sure," The blonde started, "but where are we going to eat?"

The black haired boy smirked, "I know a place a couple blocks from here."

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed and rushed to the genius' side.

Naruto had never been one to hang out with people his age, other than his team that is, so this was a new experience, "Naruto there is something I've always wanted to ask." Naruto turned his attention from the meal he was eating, "It's troublesome, but why do you want to become Hokage?"

With a cheerful smile Naruto replied, "So everybody will recognize me! I want to become what the old man is. He walks around and everybody knows him, everybody asks him for advice, everybody looks up to him like a grand hero! I want that out of life." Shikamaru began to understand Naruto somewhat.

While he was a loner, a misfit, and generally troublesome he had some lofty goals that Shikamaru could at least respect, "You do know that you actually have to be smart instead of just strong, right?" He asked the blonde, figuring out that Naruto probably only thought he had to be strong to receive the title of Hokage.

Before Naruto could reply Shikamaru glanced out the window to see one of the strangest things he had ever witnessed. In the window there was an old man with white hair hanging off the side of the building looking in through the glass at Naruto with an angry look.


	3. Chapter 3

Here we are with chapter three of The Sealing Art and to tell you the truth I'm glad this fic is so well liked. It brings a smile to my face. Anyways this chapter will deal with training, but it will be fast forwarded so we can get to the Chunin Exam Finals next chapter.

To those wondering why Naruto hasn't called Jiraiya by Pervy Sage or Ero-Sannin he hasn't found out that Jiraiya is a pervert, yet.

I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 3: Hell.

The man hanging off the side of The Akimichi Grill was Jiraiya. He looked in at the two Genin, but noticed that Naruto still hadn't noticed him. The other brat had seen him so he signaled him to turn Naruto's attention towards the window. Jiraiya had decided to follow Naruto to make sure that everything went smoothly, but found out he was goofing off with one of his little friends.

Shikamaru looked slightly frightened at the sight, yet followed his orders anyways, "Naruto, there's a weird old man hanging off the building looking at us." Naruto looked over with at the weird Sage. He then got up, walked away from the table, out the door, and to the weapon smith. Shikamaru walked after Naruto with a frown. Who was this old man and how did he know Naruto?

Jiraiya, meanwhile, had gone back to the shadows to follow Naruto. The boy was easily distracted so it never hurt to follow him and make sure that he procured the necessary supplies for his training. The other boy he didn't care for. If he was in the finals it would be the best if he got less training, "Hey, Naruto, wait up!" He heard the boy call out.

"What is it, Shikamaru?" Naruto was nearly to the weapon smith when he was stopped.

"Who was that old guy?" The two continued to walk on down the road. It was a beautiful day in Konoha and many people were outside enjoying the day. As they moved through the crowd Naruto received many glares that he just simply ignored. As for Shikamaru, the boy was extremely annoyed by the blond that he was following.

"Oh! That guy is some Kabuki Dancer that just happens to be a Ninja." Shikamaru's eye twitched, "He's teaching me how to use these things called… called… sores? No that can't be right! Um…" Naruto grabbed his chin for a second, "That's it! Seals!" Shikamaru stopped dead in his tracks. A Kabuki Dancer was teaching Naruto in seals. Naruto and Sealing Jutsu just didn't mix in his mind, but now he was curious about the Kabuki Dancer, though.

The more Shikamaru thought about it the more the finals came to mind, "Hey Naruto, when all this Chunin Exam business is over with we'll go watch the clouds sometime." He started walking away from the blonde, but stopped again, "On second thought, Choji, you, and I are going to lunch." Both started walking again, but stopped, "You're buying!"

With that the two walked away from each other. One to finish his chore and the other back to his sensei to go back to his training.

Naruto made it to the weapons shop known as Konohagakure Weapons Emporium. He walked in, noticing the distinct smell of metal and the dull heat that blanketed the shop. A woman bowed with a small smile gracing her face, "Welcome, kind sir, how may I help you today?"

"Aren't you the teammate of that jackass, Neji?" The girl lifted her head up to see that it was only the shrimp from the Chunin Exams. This girl was simply known as Tenten, and like Naruto she was a Genin. She had dark brown hair, tied up in buns while she wore a sleeveless qipao-style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons as well as dark green pants. Right now she wore a thick, brown apron and had smudges of black all over her arms and face.

"And you're that shrimp challenging Neji!" Tenten had been busy the entire day with helping in the forge of this shop, "How can I help you?" and she was not in the mood for much talk.

"Oh! I need to pick up a stack of sealing papers!" Naruto exclaimed, but Tenten was skeptical.

"And how, pray tell, are you going to pay for this?"

"This kabuki dancer named Jiraiya told me to tell you to put it on his tab!" Naruto replied. Tenten's skepticism grew in many ways. Why would one of the Sannin be teaching this brat?

Tenten started to laugh, "Get out of this shop kid if you don't have enough money." She didn't have time to even humor the kid today. She would be busy for the next week and a half with special orders. Tenten had worked in this shop since before she had even become a Genin. Tenten was a self-described weapon's mistress.

She had been in this shop so much that she was offered a job here and was actually trained in using the forge, "Hey! I already got in trouble for slacking off once today!"

"Not my problem, shrimp! I don't believe that you were sent here by Lord Jiraiya and I honestly don't think you could afford to even buy them, so please leave, sir!" The girl was getting annoyed by the kid now.

"NO!" He shouted, "IF I DON'T GET THESE PAPERS I'LL PROBABLY GET ATTACKED BY SOME KIND OF TOAD!" No sooner had Naruto spoken when all of a sudden a toad walked into the shop with an unusual grin. This toad had a cloth headband that cut off just above his eyes along with a katana at his side and a tanto on his back. He was a bright green with a bluish tint, "Oh no!"

"I apologize, Lord Naruto!" The toad knelt down and held his tanto to his stomach, "For Lord Jiraiya's forgetfulness of sending his seal with you to prove you were on an errand, I will now commit seppuku!" Why were all the toads so strange, was the question Naruto wanted to ask, but decided against.

"Seppuku, are you going to kill yourself over what that old kabuki dancer forgot?" Naruto scrambled to the toad and grabbed the sword before he could kill himself, "DON'T KILL YOURSELF!"

The toad was now on his knees inspecting the two Genin, "My name is Gamameiyo, and I hail from Mount Myoboku! I serve under the honorable Lord Gamahiro and Lord Jiraiya!"

This spectacle seemed so unreal to Tenten! Here she was having a normal day when a shrimp, who had made it to the finals of the Chunin Exams by pure luck, popped in and told her that he was running an errand for the Toad Sage Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, then this walks in and says it's true! She scratched her head in irritation, "Fine! Just take the damn papers and leave! I don't think I can handle any more of this weirdness!"

"Fine, but you don't need to be so crabby about it!" Naruto stuck out his tongue as he received a scroll full, but only after receiving a knock to the head for the last comment. The toad known as Gamameiyo left in much the same fashion as the toads Naruto had seen earlier leaving him to contemplate if the old man named Jiraiya was actually important.

To have taught _the_ Yondaime Hokage, the freaking Yellow Flash of Konohagakure, was so surreal and so unrealistic that it seemed like a story, at least that's what Naruto told himself. Maybe Teuchi had been breathing in ramen fumes for too long, but what if this was all true? That girl sure acted like it shouldn't have been possible for this Jiraiya to tutor someone!

Well it didn't matter too much right now! He wanted to hurry before another toad popped up. He sped past many of the villagers in a rush to get back to the spot he had been training at earlier. After a few minutes the Genin had arrived with the man known as Jiraiya jotting down notes of some kind, "Took you long enough, kid!"

"Shut up!" Naruto retorted.

Naruto and Jiraiya were back in the same spots as before, but now they had supplies that would last the two of them for at least two months, "Now that all the distractions are out of the way we can finally begin." Jiraiya got into his serious mode again, "The basis of a seal is simply the one that creates them. If you make a single mistake your storage seal will end up blowing up in your face." He gave Naruto an inkwell and a brush for starters.

"Hey Kabuki guy what about that Jutsu that that man lady put on me?" Jiraiya perked up.

"That too was a seal, but it way beyond you as of this moment. To get you on the caliber of using The Five Elements Seal we must first drill the basics into your head." Naruto looked down at the paper with a smile. Something deep inside him knew how to write it, it felt right to him to be making a Seal, "And my name is Jiraiya!" Jiraiya watched the kid copy down the Storage Seal; the kid was a natural at this! Sure there were a couple small mistakes, but Naruto was doing better than most Chunin would there first time creating a seal, "That Uzumaki blood is something…" The older man whispered to himself. He meant to keep that inside his head, but Naruto heard it.

Naruto paused, "What do you mean by 'That Uzumaki blood is something'?" Jiraiya now paused. He had just let something slip out that shouldn't of been said. He mentally kicked himself over and over for letting that slip. Damn nostalgia! He had been so caught up in reminiscing about teaching the boy's father that he had let go a national secret.

"Well… I wasn't supposed to say anything, but I'll tell you if you can make a Storage Seal without any mistakes." Bribery always worked best in situations such as this. Naruto on the other hand didn't know how to react to this. Jiraiya knew something about his last name and if he only had to make a Seal then he would.

Naruto looked at the seal that Jiraiya had made, then at the seal he had made. He didn't see any mistakes until he noticed that he had made a character slightly wider than what Jiraiya had written. He brought up another piece of paper then tried again. This time his character was taller than the one Jiraiya had made.

After nearly for hours he had finally gotten it right, "Can you tell me what you meant then?"

"Fine, fine!" Jiraiya chuckled. This was going to be a long conversation to have, but it was best that he heard it from him instead of some random nobody that knew of the Uzumaki clan. The only exception that he felt for someone other than himself for Naruto to be told by would probably be either The Hokage or even Kakashi, "I guess this should be a campfire story!" Naruto took the hint and went through the steps to make a campfire it didn't take too long, but the boy was getting impatient. He sat down opposite Jiraiya and waited in silence.

"To be honest this conversation should be held when you make Chunin, but I might as well tell you now." The stars began to show themselves with a crescent moon looming over the horizon while Jiraiya smiled sadly, "This is a story from long ago. It was back when Old Man Sarutobi still had some brown in hair, if you can believe that! Back then we were at peace, but it was an uneasy one. In a land, not too far away from The Land of Fire, there rested an island surrounded by massive whirlpools. This land, Naruto, was the homeland of your ancestors, The Uzumaki Clan!" Naruto looked in awe, "I only saw it once, but let me tell you something, it was gorgeous. Beautiful land and with it beautiful women galore!" Jiraiya chuckled perversely. Naruto looked at the Kabuki Dancer with narrowed eyes. He now that he needed to reevaluate what Jiraiya was, "Anyways this land, Uzushiogakure, and its' people, The Uzumaki Clan, were a minor village at the time, but you can be sure they were on their way to the top.

"You see they had a talent that many didn't have, a talent in The Sealing Arts that was unrivalled by any other village, including this one." Naruto was so completely mesmerized that he had completely forgotten Jiraiya perving out, "But they weren't just a one trick pony, though. They also could take on any Shinobi or Kunoichi with their Water Style Jutsu. Back during the Second Shinobi World War I heard that they took on an army of Kumogakure's finest Lightning Style User's and sent them back with their tails between their legs."

Naruto had never heard of them before so he asked, "What happened to them?"

Jiraiya's face softened, "Well since they were so powerful they were set to be the sixth major village in this world. The other minor villages were jealous of that so they created an alliance to crush Uzushio. Amegakure, Takigakure, Kusagakure, Yugakure, and Ishigakure sent a huge army that rivalled even the Five Great Villages' forces at the time to the tiny island." The blonde didn't like where this was going, yet said nothing, "Even though their combined force was so great it took nearly a month for them to finally wipe the tiny nation off the very face of this world, but it came at a cost to them. Yugakure and Ishigakure were so drained of men and resources' that it would decades for them to rebound, in Yugakure's case they ceased being a Shinobi village entirely and became a tourist attraction. Takigakure and Kusagakure tried to war against Konoha, but it didn't last. They were both beaten and became allies more or less.

"As for Amegakure, they lasted a little while longer than most, but fell into obscurity soon enough. The remnants of your clan were scattered by the time Konoha sent out teams to find the survivors. One such survivor came to our village and damn was she a beauty. She also had a mean right hook!" Jiraiya rubbed his stomach as he remembered the time he had tried peeping on her, "She had a fiery temper and I guess that was attracted that guy." Jiraiya was so caught up in talking that he lost himself. He looked at the small boy in front of him with an almost grandfatherly gaze, "I remember this one time that that Uzumaki woman got into a fight with that Hiashi Hyuuga over her hair. She chased that poor boy across the entire village until your father attempted to stop her!" The blonde boy looked at Jiraiya. Did he know who his parents were? He decided to wait until Jiraiya had finished, "Old Man Sarutobi was so mad at your mother for taking out the entirety of the market district that he made her build all the stalls from scratch.

"Your dad helped her, but she, being too proud, kicked him away telling him, 'Get out of here you blonde haired bastard! I don't need help from some scrawny string bean, Dattebane!' After that your dad kept trying and trying until…" Jiraiya had said too much. He had just realized that when he looked at the boy in front of him. He was no longer a Genin at that moment, but an orphan again. He had remembered all the times that he had dreamed of having a family or when bullies always reminded him of not having a family. He held back his tears, or tried to at least.

Jiraiya put his hand on Naruto's shoulder trying to comfort him. He knew he had gone too far, but he would deal with this when he went and talked to the old man, "Are there any Uzumaki left?"

"There could be. I did hear about some somewhere, but I never did hear a lot." Naruto felt more pain. Was he the last Uzumaki left alive? If so would the Uzumaki end with him? No he would never allow this! He looked up at Jiraiya in the eyes, "I know that look all too well! How about his, I'll reach out to some of my contacts around the world to see if there are any. If I find some I'll send them this way. Okay?"

"Okay…" The rest of the day was spent in silence as Naruto and Jiraiya stared at the campfire. Jiraiya looked towards the stars wondering what Minato would think of this scene. Sure he had been made the kid's godfather, but look at how that had turned out, "Do you know my parents?"

The older man's eyes narrowed, "Yes, but I can't tell you until you're ready, kid." Naruto felt that it wasn't fair. Why did he not get to know about his parents?

The air around the fire had become somewhat depressing, "Did they actually love me?"

It struck Jiraiya right at his core since he too once questioned if his parents loved him, "Kid, if I've ever been sure of something this would be it." A gentle smile graced the older man's lips, "Your parents gave their very lives in order to protect you from death!" Jiraiya got up from his spot to ruffle the boy's hair, "I may not be able to tell you much about them, but I can tell you that they did love you, with every fiber of their being!"

"But why can't you tell me about them?" Naruto felt happy and confused at the same time; it didn't sit right with him at all.

"All I can say is that a long time ago there was a mess that will get messier if a few people found out about who your parents are and leave it at that." It also didn't sit well with Jiraiya, but what could he do? He was under direct orders from the Hokage, "You better run along now, before it gets too late."

The boy could sense that the conversation was over, although he didn't want it be, and decided to leave well enough alone for now, but the next time he got the chance he would hound Jiraiya like no other.

The older Shinobi, on the other hand, thought he would check up on his sensei and see what the word around the village was. Truthfully he was hoping that he wouldn't be receiving an ass chewing as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, '_I know sensei will be pissed off for what I've said tonight!_' He thought to himself as he climbed through the open window at The Hokage Tower.

Sarutobi looked silently at his old student. Jiraiya looked like a little kid that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, "To be honest I like how you left out how you were beaten by those beauties after they caught you peeping." Jiraiya chuckled, but was soon silenced by the massive amount of killing intent, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT YOU NEARLY DID, JIRAIYA!?"

The Toad Sannin's mouth went dry for a moment. This wasn't the first time he had felt this massive of a killing intent and it probably wouldn't be the last, but still when The God of Shinobi yelled at you, you cowered, "I was… doing my duty… as Godfather?"

"NO! YOU NEARLY LET SLIP THE SECOND MOST WELL GUARDED SECRET THAT KONOHAGAKURE HAS EVER HAD!" To say Hiruzen Sarutobi was furious would be an understatement, "DO YOU EVEN REALIZE THAT IF NARUTO, WHO I REGARD AS MY OWN GRANDSON, LET SLIP THAT HIS PARENTS WERE SOME OF KONOHA'S GREATEST SHINOBI THAT THERE WOULD BE A SHIT STORM SO GREAT THAT IT WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY START THE FOURTH SHINOBI WORLD WAR!?" The Sandaime rubbed his temples with a groan, "I'm sorry Jiraiya it's just…"

"Yea, I know Old Man, but after I told him about the Uzumaki you should have seen him!" Jiraiya perked up, "I think I'll take him on as an apprentice after the finals are over." Sarutobi got serious again. Orochimaru's invasion was more than likely to be set for that day.

He looked at the smiling Jiraiya with a heavy heart, "Jiraiya are you ready for your old teammate's attack?"

"You know that I'm always ready to defend Konoha!" Jiraiya smirked halfheartedly. He hated war to its very core, but when it came to defending his village nothing would stand in his way.

"I'll be calling a war council tomorrow, be there." The Hokage ordered his student.

The month had come and gone as fast as it could with days becoming hotter. The Shinobi and Kunoichi who had made it to the finals now made their way to the Stadium perched high above the village on top the Hokage Monument. For Naruto it was a very productive month.

It had been spent wisely with Naruto finally getting down water walking after a few days he and Ebisu had moved onto learning the Water Style: Gunshot Jutsu, which took a week. As for his time spent with Jiraiya, well that went a little smoother; he had perfected his storage seals and had learned how to make explosive tags and learned how to do a C-Rank Chakra Block Seal. He had finished all this in two weeks and spent the last two weeks on learning how to summon Toads, unfortunately he had only been able to summon a small toad by the name of Gamakichi.

With all of this set the newest Toad Summoner walked towards the crowded stadium with Ebisu in tow. He still had his orange jumpsuit on, but over it was a brown cloak with the large Uzumaki Clan Symbol on the back of it along with five jugs of water at his side and a large jug on his back, similar to that of Gaara of the Sand's gourd of sand. Naruto had learned that until he had more control on his chakra he would have use outside sources of water to be able to use his new Jutsu.

He was now ready to fight Neji Hyuuga!


	4. Chapter 4

We finally passed the fifty mark for follows! While I know that that isn't a lot considering some fanfics have over a thousand follows this is better than some! So keep reading, following, reviewing, and favoring this fic!

Now onto more important business. To answer the one person that asked if I was going to change Naruto's outfit; I will sometime down the line, but right now I want him to keep the orange jumpsuit. Next I know that I said last chapter would be training and it turned into story time, I'm honestly sorry about that. To be honest I wanted to write a chapter for training, but that chapter just flowed right. It only took me a couple hours to write.

To be honest with those that follow this fic, I kind of guessed when it came to the numbers for Konoha's military size. I mean the Alliance had eighty thousand Shinobi and Kunoichi so I just kinda guessed at this. Don't get mad because I'm going to be trolling you guys on the fifth Hokage. For those that guess it don't say it until I post it. Just pm me and see if your right.

Finally I will be putting Shikamaru's and Shino's fights in the next chapter or two and a surprise fight. I know it's already non-canon, but this surprise fight will take it further away from canon. Also buckle up because I plan on making this chapter longer than any chapter I have done thus far.

I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 4: Fate.

With each step Naruto took another person turned their attention towards him. It was strange not seeing a hint of orange on Naruto and it was stranger still that Naruto wasn't smiling. It had been the same since Jiraiya had let slip that he knew his parents and about his clan. The day after that event Jiraiya had made a deal with him; if he was to win against Neji he would tell him a little about his mother, if he beat his next opponent Naruto would be told a little more, if he became Chunin he would be given a picture of his mother, and finally when he became Jonin he would find out who his father was. It was a horrible tactic that Jiraiya was using, but if it meant Naruto getting as strong as possible and becoming a Shinobi of great renown then so be it, he would need to strong to fend off his father's enemies.

Naruto was still making his way into the stadium, thinking on the deal he had made with Jiraiya. He was wrapped up in thinking that he failed to notice that standing near him was a cherry haired girl, "Naruto!" This certain cherry haired girl was named Sakura Haruno and she was a part of Naruto's team, Team Seven, along with Sasuke Uchiha and their Jonin Sensei, Kakashi. Naruto looked over when he heard his name with a fake smile adorning his face.

"O-Oh! Hey, Sakura!" Naruto had had a crush on her since they had both been ten, but Sakura always liked Sasuke. It weighed heavily on Naruto's heart, but he didn't dwell on it for too long.

"Where have you been?" She smiled at the blonde boy while he responded with a smirk of his own.

"Training!" He nearly shouted, "I'm definitely making Chunin today!" He was about to take off again, but was stopped by one question he didn't want to hear coming from the cherry haired girl.

"Have you seen Sasuke at all?" Naruto stopped in his tracks with a frown that Sakura couldn't see. He slowly began stepping forward again without as much as a word. Sakura, meanwhile, was more worried now about Sasuke.

Out on the floor Neji Hyuuga was off away from the other Chunin hopefuls trying in vain to settle down. Fate had decreed that he would make Chunin today along with silencing that fool Uzumaki. The very thought of Uzumaki trying to defy fate made him cringe. He would wipe the smug smirk off his face then make sure that he would never be able to even use an iota of Chakra again after his match was over.

Neji was a bit taller than Naruto with long brown hair tied in a ponytail in the back. He wore a short sleeved tan jacket which led down to pair of black shorts with bandages wrapped around in two spots on his right leg. His right arm and leg were covered with bandages while his left remained uncovered.

When he saw Naruto entering the stadium with that ridiculously sized gourd on his back he nearly chuckled. Had this fool hoped to fight him with mere tricks? The Hyuuga Clan had never been big on using Ninjutsu since the clan's Taijutsu was their major asset. Neji took this disuse of Ninjutsu one step further by regarding the whole category as only something a fool would use when he was truly desperate. Sure he knew how to use Bunshin, Kawarimi, and Henge, but you had to know those three to graduate.

Naruto also saw Neji. The two were destined to clash here in a few minutes and they both knew it. For good or ill each of their destinies would be intertwined from this day forth. Naruto thought back to this morning when he was met by Hinata Hyuuga, heiress to the Hyuuga Clan.

It had been less than fifty minutes ago when Naruto had met the heiress on the streets of Konoha. Naruto was getting pumped up as the moment for his fight drew closer and closer. He had never been too familiar with the girl, but when they had met she had been nice to him, "Naruto… p-please don't h-hurt, N-Neji…" She had her head bowed, "I-I… k-know that… N-Neji says a-all those th-things, b-but he i-is hurting b-badly!"

"Why? He hurt you and he thinks that pretty much anyone that tries to fight against that fate crap is nothing, but trash!" Naruto was yelling now while Hinata's eyes were welling up with tears. Dammit! She was trying to guilt him into listening to, and it was working, "But I won't hurt him too bad." The shy girl started smiling a little, "Don't get me wrong, I'm going to kick his ass, but I won't do it too hard!" Hinata hugged Naruto tightly until she realized what she was doing. She stopped the hug, looked down, and poked her fingers together. Naruto, for his part, blushed slightly.

"G-Good l-luck…!" She walked away pretty quickly for a girl that was still recovering. Naruto kept on thinking that Hinata was strange, but pushed it away when he began walking again.

Currently the two glared daggers at each other without much remorse to the other. Their ideals were on the line and today they would fight for them along with their convictions. It would truly be a battle of whose will was strongest.

The Hokage began to speak, "THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR COMING TO THE KONOHAGAKURE CHUNIN EXAM FINALS! WE WILL NOW START THE MAIN TOURNAMENT MATCHES BETWEEN THE EIGHT PARTICIPANTS WHO MADE THROUGH THE PRELIMINARIES! PLEASE STAY AND WATCH UNTIL THE END!" The Sandaime sat back down next to The Yondaime Kazekage, Sakin of the Desert. Right now there were six Genin on the stadium's floor. Shikimaru Nara, Shino Aburame, Temari of the Desert, Kankaro of the Desert, Naruto Uzumaki, and Neji Hyuuga; Gaara of the Desert and Sasuke Uchiha were missing in action at the moment.

The Hokage and The Kazekage were sitting in their chairs looking over the crowded arena, "I have to ask, Kazekage-sama, where _is_ your son?" Both the Kage sat trying to read each other.

"Unfortunately he could not make it, Hokage-sama." Sarutobi stopped himself from narrowing his eyes. This didn't seem like the Yondaime Kazekage. Anything that had to do with Gaara of the Sand the Kazekage would simply grunt or he would grimace, not say unfortunately, "I left my son to protect Sunagakure while I was here in Konohagakure."

Next to the Kazekage were four masked individuals that were identified as the Kazekage's bodyguards while on the opposite side of the booth Sarutobi was with three of his own Jonin; Genma Shiranui, Raido Namiashi, and Iwashi Tatami. The Hokage began to think back to the meeting he had a couple weeks back with his top Jonin and Jonin Commander, his Anbu captains, and Jiraiya.

The room was full of tension as The Hokage sat down in front of his military staff. They hadn't been called since the Uchiha Massacre years before, "I'm sure many of you are wondering why I have called you here; the answer is war is on our doorstep yet again." Many perked up except for Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Shikaku Nara. The first two knew about the incident with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death while the latter merely figured it out inside his head, "Otogakure has made movements towards our borders just as Sunagakure has." The Jonin began to murmur, "With the death of Hayate Gekko and Orochimaru infiltrating our village just to mark Sasuke Uchiha with that damnable seal within a week of each other it puts me on edge."

Shikaku, leader of the Nara Clan and Jonin Commander, stood up from where he was sitting, "Lord Hokage, we only number around ten thousand Shinobi and Kunoichi at most eight thousand at the very least. I know that we are considered a great military power, but facing Sunagakure and Otogakure at the same time is something we might not be able to do." The Nara had always had high positions in Konoha's chain of command due to their overly developed brains. Even now Shikaku was trying to figure out a winning stratagem, "We could reach out to one of our allies for reinforcements."

"Which one? Suna has decided to turn against us, Takigakure isn't that powerful, and as for Kusagakure… well they might be able to send more than a few squads, but it would be costly." Kakashi offered, "What do you think Lord Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya had been silently sitting in the corner thinking while Shikaku was working on a strategy, "I think that Kusa might be our only option at the moment. If that snake bastard is leading Otogakure we'll be in for a lot of trouble." Shikaku got up again with a sigh.

He looked around at the room, "We could send four squads of Anbu to the stadium, ten squads to the wall, and station a few more squads stationed around the village. We could also have the Genin and Chunin that are in the stadium help with the evacuation while the Jonin act as a vanguard." Hiruzen smiled a little when he thought of how nice it was to have a Nara as his Jonin Commander, "Now since we have Jiraiya-sama we have a way of countering Orochimaru's snakes, if he summons any. I would also advise having the Hokage Guard Platoon near you, Lord Hokage, in case of an attack by Sakin of the Desert or Orochimaru himself." He then turned his attention to Kakashi, Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi, and Might Gai, "Squads seven, eight, and ten will be assigned to the task of attacking Gaara of the Sand." That part of the plan had the Jonin squad leaders on edge, "This is a priority I would rather go do myself, but my team will be coordinating the villages' defense while also aiding in the protection of the civilian populace."

Hiruzen smiled at his subordinates, they truly did hold the will of fire in their hearts, "Thank you Shikaku. We will be holding another meeting in one week! Asuma I want you to take Kiba Inuzuka, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi to deliver a letter to the leader of Kuso requesting military aid." Asuma bowed to his father slightly then left.

With the room clearing out Jiraiya tried slinking away out with the crowd until he felt a hand on his shoulder, "What is it old man?"

"Who would you pick as the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure?" Jiraiya's eyes widened when the Sandaime, his teacher, asked him that.

"What do you mean, Sarutobi-sensei?" The old Hokage gave his student a gentle smile while said student knew what he meant. There was a comfortable silence growing, "There are five candidates for Godaime: Tsunade, Kakashi, Danzo, and myself. Danzo is definitely off the list, though, as for Kakashi; he's too wrapped up in the past, and I refuse to do it." Sarutobi looked away from his student, "Tsunade is a possibility, if we can get her out of her funk and as for the last candidate, and well he's strong. Strong enough to make the other nations from attacking us out of fear… yet…"

"Yet what?" Sarutobi knew perfectly well who Jiraiya was talking about, "He loves this village as much as I. He will be a perfect candidate; we just have to work out the kinks."

"You would have to come up with an explanation on why he did what he!" Jiraiya just looked on at the man that the world called The Professor. The old codger was already working on a few machinations in his head, but Jiraiya wondered what the repercussions of bringing that man back into Konoha's fold.

Sarutobi smirked a little, bringing himself back from his memories, live or die he would be hanging up the mantle of Hokage for good after this day. Down below the small group of finalists stood in a line while a purple haired woman stood in front of them. She wore Konoha's regular Jonin attire and didn't have an expression, except for a frown. This woman was Yugao Uzuki, "Today will be the final day of the Chunin Exams and we have quite the turnout today. Give the clientele a good show along with the audience!" She paused as all the Genin acknowledged this, "Neji Hyuuga and Naruto Uzumaki, you two stay! The rest of you go to your specified viewer box!"

Neji and Naruto stood far apart from each other without as much as a sound, "BEGIN!" The stare down continued until Neji got into his stance for Gentle Fist. As for Naruto, he took off one of the jugs from his waste and began drinking with his eyes closed, "Answer me one question, Neji: why did you do it? Why did you try to kill her!?" Naruto was pissed. He was madder than the time he thought that Sasuke was killed by the Kekkai Genkai user, Haku, back in Wave Country. Neji, for his part, was snickering.

"Why?" He answered the question with a question, "Why does a man crush a bug with their shoe? It's simply because no one wants to be bothered by them. I hate, no, I loathe that pathetic excuse for an heiress." The blonde Genin had a look of bewilderment on his face, "Your dimwitted expression tells me that you have no idea why I hate Hinata. It's simple; really, if it wasn't for her my father would still be alive. You see years ago Konoha and Kumogakure were in the middle of peace talks when in the middle of one night _she_ was kidnapped by the visiting ambassador." Yugao and Naruto could both hear bloodlust coming into his voice, "Lord Hiashi killed the ambassador. Kumo later came asking for recompense and the price was Lord Hiashi's head.

"My father was his twin brother. They had my father killed and sent in Lord Hiashi's place!" He nearly screamed. So much hate and venom filled the young Hyuuga's voice that it sent chills down the spine of some in the audience, "But what can you expect from the Main Branch of The Hyuuga clan! We, who belong to the Branch Family, are treated as dirt while they are treated as lords all because of one evil Seal!"

Naruto looked over at Neji with shock, "What seal?" How could a seal make people slaves? He wondered that, but he also wondered if he could relate to Neji when it came to being marked with a seal.

"The Hyuuga Clan's Juinjutsu!" He undid the headband from his forehead to show Naruto, "The Caged Bird Seal!" Naruto still wasn't great at seals but could see that it was one. A crude seal with malice placed in every line.

"Are you two midgets going to stand around talking all day or fight?" The purple haired Jonin was clearly not amused, but she wasn't irritated either. She just wanted to see them fight already.

Naruto started moving first circling around Neji very slowly. Neji activated his Byakugan with a knowing smirk. Whatever strategy or idea that dead last had created was sure to fail. Naruto made a t-shaped hand sign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Five exact replicas appeared with a puff of smoke. The small group of Naruto's ran back towards one tree that stood near the wall of the arena. They ran up into a spot hidden by leaves.

"Fool! Do you wish to hide and cower in a tree? I will show you how futile struggling against fate is!" Neji ran after the blonde Genin at breakneck speed, but when he got up in the tree all he saw were a small group of birds fluttering away. Neji's right eye twitched until he saw something that he almost missed, even with his Byakugan. A branch was filled with Explosive Tags very close to where he was crouching. The boy jumped away in time to see the entire tree explode, "DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT MERE TRICKS CAN BEST ME?!"

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" A multitude of Naruto's appeared out of nowhere with the full intent on fighting Neji in a full on Taijutsu battle.

In the Stands, Kiba Inuzuka, was sitting near the middle of the crowd with his dog, Akamaru. Both looked on in complete interest at the spectacle unfolding below, "Taking a Hyuuga on in Taijutsu, Naruto? I know that you're kind of dumb, but that's simply suicide!" He failed to notice that Hinata had sat down beside him quietly.

Kiba was a thirteen year old Genin with a doggish look about him, which was common amongst the Inuzuka Clan. He had upside down red triangles under his eyes that reminded some of fangs. Along with that was a bushel of shaggy, brown hair on his head. He wore a grey jacket with black fur lining and a pair of dark grey pants, and in his hood the puppy known as Akamaru poked his head out to see what was going on.

"K-Kiba how is N-Naruto?" She asked quietly and with a small tinge of embarrassment. It was no small secret that the young heiress had a huge crush on Naruto so Kiba didn't want to worry her too much.

"He's actually planning something, I think?" Kiba looked down at the battle again just in time to notice that the birds he had seen in flying out of the tree were perched near the fight watching as Neji hit one clone after another without much effort, "I don't know how he's doing it, but it seems that Naruto is the one in charge of the fight so far." Hinata cheered up a little more after hearing that.

In another part of the stands Sakura was sitting with Ino Yamanaka wondering why Naruto had just walked away from her earlier. She frowned at that and the fact that Sasuke was still gone, "Ino where do you think Sasuke is?" Ino merely chuckled then followed it up with a slap to the back of Sakura's head, "OW!"

"Don't worry about Sasuke; I'm sure he'll make it here in time! Just worry about cheering on Naruto!" Ino told the cherry haired girl with a smile.

"Yea, you're right!" Ino was right! Sure Sasuke wasn't here now, but he would probably arrive at any moment. For now she would cheer for her other teammate.

One Naruto tried kicking Neji in the head while a few others followed, another group tried punching, but all were thrown back when the Branch Family member started spinning at great speeds, "Gentle Fist's ultimate defense, "EIGHT TRIGRAMS: PALM ROTATION!" All the remaining Naruto clones popped out of existence leaving a cloud of Chakra behind. All, but one of the birds transformed back into Naruto with a foxy smile. They took a big swig from one of the jugs of water then went through a series of hand signs.

"Water Style: Gunshot Jutsu!" Four high powered streams of water shot from the mouths of the blondes' right at Neji. For his part, the young Hyuuga began his ultimate defense again, but he failed to notice that another Naruto had snuck up close to him. The group of clones stopped their tirade of Jutsu just in time to see that the defense had ended. Naruto ran at Neji quickly with a seal in hand. The seal was The Chakra Block Seal that would, undoubtedly, end the match.

"Trying another trick, Uzumaki?" Naruto stopped dead in his track as Neji turned around and stood with his hands at his sides, "You're in my range… EIGHT TRIGRAMS: ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHT PALMS!" Neji charged at blinding speed at Naruto until, "TWO PALMS, FOUR PALMS, EIGHT PALMS, SIXTEEN PALMS, THIRTY TWO PALMS, SIXTY FOUR PALMS, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT PALMS!" Naruto could only stand and take the brutal attack that hit every point of Chakra on his body. The blonde fell down on the ground with his eyes wide open, "It's over…"

-End-


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry about cutting the fight of too soon, but I wanted to Troll you guys. Anyways the real reason is I wanted to test out well I could do a cliffhanger. I got mixed results so I will, more than likely, not be doing anymore cliffhangers with the fights.

Sorry about the hiatus, but Fanfiction, while fun, does not pay the bills. Plus some personal problems, Mass Effect, my friends, and hitting on hotties (Failed most of the time) really diverted my attention. Also if you haven't seen Summer Wars go and watch it after reading this.

Anyways I've come to the conclusion that the internet is full of trolls and spiteful people. You guys are cool, though. Also I know this might offend some of my readers, but other than Pokemon and Parodies self-insert original characters grind my gears worse than most things. They only work somewhat well in Pokemon fanfiction, but other than that they really are annoying. OC characters are all well and fine, but when you try to put yourself in the story it just seems… meh…

I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 5: Drag out Brawl.

Naruto was lying down on the ground wide eyed from the attack. His whole body hurt, it hurt so much that he began shaking from the pain, but he tried moving nonetheless, '_Are you really going to let this stuck up bastard win, Naruto?_' Naruto looked around, he could hear Jiraiya, but he couldn't see him, '_I thought you trained harder than this! It's time you use that beast's Chakra!'_

"I know I have to, but I can't use it!" The blonde Genin struggled to his feet. Neji was walking away from the boy thinking he had won. He turned around to see Naruto standing up again, '_It's okay, Naruto, use it and you can use your Chakra again! Kick that kid's ass!_' Slowly Naruto started concentrating on his Tenketsu Points.

It was one week ago when Naruto and Jiraiya had gone over this very topic, "Those of the Hyuuga Clan can cut off their opponents Chakra by using their Gentle Fist Style to close their opponents Tenketsu Points. If that happens to you, you'll lose right now." Jiraiya, Ebisu, and Naruto were sitting at Ichiraku's going over strategy after another day of hard work, "There's only one way to open up your Tenketsu Points after getting hit by a Gentle Fist Style attack. You _will_ have to use that beast."

Naruto and Ebisu nearly choked on their ramen. Was the older man really suggesting that Naruto use The Kyuubi's Chakra? The closet pervert merely let his chopsticks fall into the broth, "Excuse me for saying this, Lord Jiraiya, but are you a fool?"

Jiraiya simply pouted at the younger Tokubetsu Jonin. A lot of people called him a fool and it always irritated him to no end. He was one of the Sannin and a Seal Master for god's sake! Naruto on the other hand felt butterflies in his stomach at the very thought of using The Kyuubi. The last time he had used that beast's Chakra he'd felt so much hatred and a burning desire to destroy and kill. The thought of using that Chakra again truly did terrify him, "No… I won't…" He was so scared he could only squeak out a few words. Then like a flame that had just been fed kindling, "I REFUSE TO USE THAT BEAST! I NEARLY KILLED SOMEONE WHEN I DID!"

"I know that, Naruto. Old man Sarutobi told me about it, but you have to realize that even though it seems like a curse, it's your heritage, your lineage, and your birthright all rolled into one big seal on _your_ stomach, Naruto!" Jiraiya felt like banging his head against the wall. Every time he would mention using the Kyuubi's Chakra Naruto would ignore it or sometimes, like now, throw a fit, "Alright, Naruto, but I'll have you know the other Uzumaki that used the Kyuubi didn't complain!" Naruto looked up from his ramen with a look of wonderment.

Ebisu did his best to look like a fish out of water as soon as he heard that there were other Uzumaki that held the Kyuubi, "What do you mean by _other_ Uzumaki?" The sunglasses wearing man was totally curious at this. Of course he had known at about that Uzumaki woman who was a Jonin when he was a kid, but did that mean that she was Jinchuriki too?

"Yea! What do you mean?" The quick turnaround with Naruto made Jiraiya smile. He hated seeing the brat sad, "There were other containers before me?"

Jiraiya put on a big smile, "Of course there were and they were only Uzumaki!" The Ichiraku's had made their way from the kitchen with the final batch of ramen that night when they heard Jiraiya.

"Can we hear this, Lord Jiraiya?" Ayami asked. This topic was treading into a very controversial subject along with a state secret. Did the father and daughter deserve to hear this? Jiraiya thought so!

Teuchi looked on at the older man. He was more curious about this than many here. He had been like an uncle to Naruto ever since the boy had wandered into the shop with Iruka, "I'm going to close shop, but you can stay and tell this tale." He constantly worried over the blonde Genin's welfare whenever the boy was gone. The thing about Naruto was that there were many mysteries surrounding him, if he could hear at least one he would be happy.

"Alright since you all want to hear this we have to go back six hundred years ago when the Senju and Uzumaki were still one family. You see there were two brothers that ran the clan back then. One was serious and quiet while the other one was rowdy and loud. Both always had different ways of running things, but they made it work until one day… one day…" Jiraiya paused then looked at Naruto with weird look.

"One day what?" Naruto asked.

"One day the brothers had gotten into an argument and your ancestor came up with the idea to settle the argument with a… a… drinking contest." He paused as he rubbed his temples, "Why do the Uzumaki always have to cause trouble?" Jiraiya asked himself quietly, "No one remembers what the exact outcome of the drinking contest was, but somehow the Uzumaki said they won while the Senju called it a tie. After that your ancestor pulled out at least a third of the clan, over two hundred people with him over a drinking contest…" Everybody and anybody could agree that this was something they could see the blonde brat pulling, "With the great split the Uzumaki went to an island off the coast of Fire Country and practiced Sealing Jutsu while the Senju continued their warfare with the surrounding clans.

"As we all know after a long time Hashirama Senju came together with Madara Uchiha to found our great village with many, many clans coming to join us. When Hashirama was elected Hokage, however, Madara went into a rage and ran away from the village becoming the world's first Missing Nin. To continue his outreach for clans Hashirama went and found Uzushiogakure and met with the Uzukage, Harada Uzumaki.

"Unlike his ancestors Harada was more serious, but decked Hashirama anyways in remembrance of the fated drinking conte-" The sound of a match being lit interrupted Jiraiya from going any further in his tale. The others within the small group looked nervously back behind Jiraiya, "Good evening, Old man…"

"Lord Hokage, I apologize for this event completely!" Ebisu was up on his feet in seconds trying to apologize to Hiruzen before anything terrible happened

The old Hokage took a long drag from his pipe before waving off the imagined slight. The smell of tobacco filling the small shop, "It was actually Lady Mito that slugged Hashirama-sensei for being a sore loser. There was a saying in my time that stands true even today, 'If you piss off an Uzumaki prepare for hell on earth!'" The Hokage took another drag from his pipe as he mused over those bygone days, "My father and the rest of the Sarutobi Clan would rather fight the entire Shinobi force of The Senju and The Uchiha then fight a few pissed of Uzumaki, but I digress. That woman would completely blow our very own Slug Princess out of the water when it came to the temper department, but at the same time she was extremely gentle.

"As I recall it was love at first punch from the way Tobirama-sensei explained it. As our Shodaime worked out a treaty with Uzushiogakure, he and Mito would occasionally spar." Naruto was completely mesmerized by the story. He was so into the story that everything else didn't seem to matter, "To be more honest Hashirama-sensei's and Lady Mito's spars were more like full scale wars. His Mokuton Jutsu was devastating, but Mito could go blow for blow with her Chakra Chains and Sealing Jutsu! I remember this one spar the two had after they had come back where they single handedly destroyed the area known as Training Ground Forty-Four." Everyone knew that The Forty-Fourth Training Ground was known as The Forest of Death.

"Anyways back to the main point. When the two finally worked out the kinks of their relationship Hashirama-sensei and Lady Mito were wed here in Konoha, but the ceremony was anything, but boring. I remember it like it was yesterday. Madara Uchiha came riding atop the Kyuubi in a grand fashion and demanded a fight to settle the seat for Hokage once and for all. Hashirama-sensei ordered everyone to evacuate while he, even his new wife, while he joined a battle that was so great it would forever alter the landscape of The Land of Fire. This battle lasted an entire day with the Valley of the End being a creation of theirs. While the battle was being fought Lady Mito devised a solution to the problem of the Kyuubi, sealing it within herself.

"Lady Mito didn't use the Kyuubi much, but when she did she turned into not only a deadly foe, but a devastating force." The way Hiruzen portrayed Mito it seemed as though she was on par with Hashirama Senju, his brother, and Madara Uchiha. Naruto was completely smiling now, "Then when she was at the end of her life she passed the torch, so to speak, to your mother, Naruto. She was the strongest Kunoichi of her generation!" He knew he was going against what he said about not telling Naruto about his parents, but to see his pseudo-grandson's face light up was worth it, "Your mother was so strong she earned herself an S-Rank in the bingo books! I remember this one time during the Third Shinobi World War she and her squad were pinned down deep in Kumogakure with at least a hundred Kumo Shinobi and Kunoichi surrounding them. Your father was at another front and I was leading an assault against one of Kirigakure's strongholds.

"She used her Chakra Chains and The Kyuubi Chakra to not only wipe out half of her enemies while the she kept the other half off her group's trail while they retreated back to one of our fortresses!" Naruto didn't realize he was crying until he was hugged by Ayame, "The point of this story is so that you, Naruto, know that the Kyuubi's Chakra is a tool for you to use! Use it and you will undoubtedly win against Neji!"

It was now Jiraiya's time to smile, "Tomorrow we will begin working you into the ground training in Toad Summoning!"

The group broke up a few minutes after with Jiraiya slinking off to the hot springs for some late night peeping, Ebisu went to his home to capture some shut eye, and the Ichiraku family following suit to their own abode. This left Naruto alone with Sarutobi in the dull lit streets of the village. It was a lazy night with only a few villagers walking past, either too tired or too drunk to notice that the Sandaime was walking among them, "This nighttime walk carries an air of familiarity around it doesn't it, Naruto my boy?"

Naruto just looked straight forward, trying his best not to speak to the old man. With a sigh said old man began talking, "You know, I often wonder how many times I've messed up over my tenure as Hokage." The night grew darker as more and more lights from the buildings around them turned off, "I know that more than once that I have messed, especially when I've had dealings with you."

The younger ninja could take a guess at where this was going, but kept his silence. As far as he was concerned it would take a hell of a lot for the Sandaime to make up for this debacle, "Know that I want to tell you who your parents are, but also know that I cannot, in good consciousness, tell you about them until you are strong enough."

"Is that an excuse?" Naruto asked with an underlying tone of aggression.

The Sandaime merely passed off the boy's aggressive tone, "No, it is fact! You are simply too young and too inexperienced to deal with the caliber of enemies your parents fought! It may not seem as if I care for you at the moment for keeping this from you, but this is for your own protection, Naruto." The two had stopped under a street light near Naruto's apartment with the boy still looked a twinge bit angry, "I care for you as much as any of my grandchildren, in fact you _are_ one of my grandchildren! When the Chunin Exams are over and done with I will make this up to you, I can promise you this."

"Sure, whatever…" Naruto made his way into his apartment, leaving a saddened Hokage out in the dark.

"Naruto, I truly am sorry."

"Fate… this…" Naruto shook himself out of his memories and took in a deep breath, "Fate… that…" The blonde boy breathed out, "It's all a damn excuse to make you feel better!" What Neji saw as Naruto released his Tenketsu Points was that of a giant demon fox. He took a step back, "Poor me, poor me, pour me a drink you bastard! You hide behind fate and destiny because it's convenient for! Even hurting Hinata because of your stupid beliefs!" The blonde started running as fast as he could with his right hand cocked back into a fist.

Neji grit his teeth in defiance of the younger Genin, "DO YOU EVEN REALIZE WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO!?" Neji finally lost his cool completely towards the wannabe Hokage, "I WILL NOW DEMONSTRATE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DEFY FATE!"

The two collided with a flurry of punches. Most of Naruto's punches landed on Neji's body, but some were blocked along with Neji's own precise strikes against his body. One of the Genin would hit the other in the chest while the other would strike back at their stomach.

In the stands Hiashi Hyuuga sat with a few of his clansmen near the nobles. He was a man of little emotion and even littler pity. He looked on as his nephew was beating the Uzumaki while getting beaten in return. It shocked him how strong both Genin were. They were easily Chunin level and this fight was one of the better ones that he had seen in a long time. He narrowed his eyes at the Uzumaki. He would be a fool not to know of clan. He was surprised, though, that the Uzumaki had not used any Sealing Techniques, "This battle has turned into nothing more than a contest of endurance. I cannot see any hope for Neji, though." He paused while his clansmen activated their Byakugan to peer at both fighters, "It seems as though the Uzumaki has a few tricks up his sleeve yet."

Back in the arena Naruto was thinking of the few tricks he still had up his sleeve, but at the moment he couldn't seem to move from his spot. The ruthlessness of this battle was escalating with each punch. Naruto was sure that he had a broken nose and a couple cracked ribs. His mind wandered to his Chakra Block Seals on his belt; if he could just reach them he would be able to end this quickly.

Neji on the other hand was beginning to wear down, but he would never let this fool win. Fate had deemed it his win today! He would make Chunin and finally show those stuck relatives known as the Main Branch that he was better than them. A true genius! His father would finally rest in peace.

Back in the stands Sakura and Ino were staring at Naruto in a new light. He had been the dead last of their class, but here he was going head to head with last year's Rookie of the Year, "Hey, Ino, how strong are you?" It was true that after the whole Wave country incident Sakura hadn't trained that much other than the few warm ups Team Seven did before they started doing D-Rank missions, "What did you learn from your Sensei?"

Ino thought for a second, "Well, I learned a basic Medic Jutsu along with a few more techniques from my clan, but other than that we've been working on Ino-Shika-Cho combination techniques!" Sakura felt overwhelmed by how little she knew. Sasuke and Naruto, even Ino, had put a large distance between them and her when it came to her training. It hurt that she was still dawdling in the background while the others began to surpass her in terms of being a ninja, "Why?"

"It's nothing, Ino, just nothing…" She would become stronger; she had to become stronger if she wanted to keep up with the others in her generation. After today Sakura Haruno promised herself that she would take her ninja training seriously, she was being left behind by Naruto for god's sake!

In another part of the stands another Hyuuga watching, but, unlike Hiashi, Hinata was way more worried about Naruto. She gripped the edges of her coat so tightly her knuckles were turning white. As for Kiba, he was so busy watching that he didn't even blink. Hinata was nearly in tears because of how bad Naruto was getting hurt.

Did Naruto go this far for just her sake? She wondered, hoping that it was true. Yet she also had to wonder if this was more for the sake of not letting someone like Neji step on the dreams of people like his and Hinata's dreams and ambitions, "Please win, N-Naruto…"

In the arena Naruto jumped back away from the slugfest and pulled out a simple piece of paper. It still was a marvel to Naruto of what this simple piece of paper and some ink could do, "Now, Neji, I will show you what an Uzumaki is capable of!" Naruto ran towards Neji while simultaneously creating three clones to keep up his attack while he prepared to attach the seal.

Neji struck the nearest clone with a Juken strike to the clones' heart. He tried doing that to dispel the other two, but they actually gave him a fair bit of trouble. The real Naruto ran at full speed behind Neji with his seal in his hand, "Too late, Uzumaki!" Neji left the other two clones behind and snatched the seal away from Naruto's hand, "A seal? Such a disgusting and cowardly item! Only a fool would study such nonsense!"

Naruto grit his teeth hard, "Take that back… NOW! Sealing isn't disgusting or cowardly! It isn't nonsense either! They are my heritage!"

Neji chuckled at that statement, "An orphan has no heritage!"

"I am a surviving member of the Uzumaki Clan of Uzushiogakure! I maybe an orphan, but I have a heritage! We Uzumaki are experts at Seals and we survived an onslaught from Kusogakure, Takigakure, Amegakure, Yugakure, and Ishigakure while destroying them!" Naruto inhaled deeply, "MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI OF THE UZUMAKI CLAN AND NEJI HYUUGA OF THE HYUUGA CLAN HAVE BEEN BEAT! **KAI!**" Neji's eyes widened as he realized that he was still holding the Chakra Block Seal. While Neji was in shock the two clones he had left behind him both punched him in the back at the same time knocking him to the ground.

"WINNER: NARUTO UZUMAKI!" The crowd went wild for Naruto with applause, whistles, and even a scream, from Hinata. Yugao Uzuki was supposed to be neutral in her judging, but she was glad the blonde boy had won.

The original Naruto was barely standing from the beating he had taken earlier, "Who's the failure now? Bastard…" Naruto tried to limp back to the competitor box, but fell down on the ground next to Neji.

Neji moved his head to the side so he could face Naruto, "I really do hate you, Uzumaki! So fate was on your side…"

The blonde Genin just laughed at the other boy, "Fate? No I just worked my ass the past month! I worked myself to the point of exhaustion some days, but it was worth it. I can't wait to see who I fight next round…" Naruto fell asleep quietly along with Neji.

"You're such a slouch Naruto!" Ebisu appeared out of nowhere with a big smile, "Time for a nap!" The Tokubetsu Jonin slung Naruto over his shoulder then used the Body Flicker Jutsu to poof into the competitor box.

Neji was carted out of the arena by the medics that were stationed nearby. In his mind he dreamed of many things, but the most prevalent was the Uzumaki's words. He dreamt of a world without the Caged Bird Seal and its horrid legacy, but more so he thought of what he had been doing and done.

"NEXT UP: SHINO ABURAME VS KANKURO OF THE DESERT!"


	6. Chapter 6

Well we passed the hundred mark for favorites and we're almost to ten thousand views! Happy days! Anyways here's chapter six of The Sealing Art! Also why is there so much hate Danzo? I mean he is the poster boy for a real ninja. I do have to say though that while he did do some dick moves and he may have done some of it, if not most for himself, he did have Konoha's best interest at heart.

Besides I mean he's better than Sasuke, at the very least. Anyways another thing is that I have an outline for where this fic is going and you will see character deaths by the end part I. Other than that I will hope that you guys keep reading, favoriting, and following this fanfic because I don't plan on stopping until I at least find myself in possession of a fine Cuban cigar, a billion dollars, two hot babes on each arm, a lifetime supply of kettle chips, an awesome suit and top hat like Rob Lucci's or Crocodile's outfit, the Rinnegan, and finally a remake of Pokemon Yellow and Final Fantasy VII.

Anyways I also think that the fans of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach should stop arguing with each other online! It gets old with the vs. forums and the eternal question of which one is better. Each one has its flaws and its good things, but shouldn't we as fellow anime fans come together to support each other?

We're finally getting close to the battle.

I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 6: Shino Aburame.

To say that the reaction to Naruto's proclamation that he was the heir to the infamous Uzumaki Clan made many in the crowd, who knew of the clan, stare at the boy with wide eyes. That clan was supposed to be extinct was the main thought coming from more than a few of the visiting dignitaries. As for the daimyo of Fire Country, well, he just started chuckling to himself. He remembered being escorted more than once by another Uzumaki during the Third Shinobi World War. She was always so free spirited, from what she remembered.

Another in the crowd tightened his grip on his cane. His face was bandaged and his right arm didn't seem to be of any use to him. His left eye cracked open, '_Foolish children, revealing such unnecessary in front of so many just for a pissing match.'_ This man was Danzo Shimura, an elder of Konoha and a former rival of Sarutobi Hiruzen himself. To many of the Shinobi and Kunoichi he was simply an old war-hawk brought up in the bygone days of The First Shinobi World War, yet he was a schemer.

This man had been plotting on taking the seat of Hokage since he had gained control of the secret Anbu group known simply as Root. He raised an army from orphans, but never used them against the Sandaime for fear reprisal. Back when Naruto was a newborn he sought after the boy so he could control the strongest of the Bijuu along with having a fully weaponized Jinchuriki, '_The Chakra Block Seal is not the easiest to learn… The Uzumaki would make a wonderful edition to The Foundation.'_ Danzo got up from his seat then started walking towards the nearest exit. Once he was out of range from the eyes and ears of the stadium two Shinobi appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Danzo-sama, shall we alert our forces to the invasion?" Danzo looked back at the two in a contemplative way. Knowing that Orochimaru was probably going for the heart of Konohagakure, Hiruzen would more than likely be the target.

He chuckled a bit to himself, "Make sure nothing happens to Naruto Uzumaki, which is our main concern." The three stood in the shadows, "Kill all those that try to breach our bases, but no more, no less." Danzo strolled out of the stadium and towards his clan's estate. As for the two Anbu they disappeared like mist in the darkness.

The arena held two new individuals, both of great importance. One the future clan head of The Aburame and the other the son of The Yondaime Kazekage. This match was considered one of great significance, for at least the Aburame, as this would bring them more than a few accolades from the nobles and a new set of avenues into the Land of Wind. Shibi Aburame sat with a few representatives of his clan observing this special event.

Shino Aburame was a quiet Genin. He wasn't one to stand out, but neither did he blend into the background. He wore a large grey coat that covered his lower face and most of his hands. With spiky black hair and a pair of sunglasses no one could really miss him. At the moment Shino was contemplating his chances against the Puppet user known as Kankuro of the Desert. With the right insects the older boy's puppets would be done for, but Shino didn't have the right insects. He had his trusty, if a normal person could call them that, Kikaichu insects buzzing around him at the moment thinking on how he would fight against such a Shinobi.

As Shino pondered his opponent made his way to the field of battle, "I think you should just give up now, kid!" A boy in black attire and face paint made his way onto the field while carrying a bag with a top that looked like spiky, brown hair. Shino raised an eyebrow at his opponent, but said nothing. Kankuro smirked a devious smile at the other boy as Yugao looked between the two. She wasn't a huge fan of children, but when ordered by the Hokage to act as judge for the Chunin Exams she couldn't refuse.

She looked between the two then, "This is the second match of Konohagakure's Chunin Exams! Hajime!"

The two Genin stared at each other trying to figure out while they stayed in their places. Both of the combatants were at least experienced enough to stay back from each other long enough to analyze the situation they were in. Kankuro, while experienced, decided to begin this duel, '_Puppet Master Jutsu_!' The bag he had started spinning around as fast as it could until it revealed a humanoid puppet with four arms, three eyes, a cruel, jagged smile, spiky, brown hair, and a tattered, brown cloak. It hung around Kankuro's neck like a monkey does its' trainer, "This battle has been decided, bug boy!"

Shino merely put his hands in his pockets as a few bugs buzzed away from him, '_A puppet user? Father has told me of these Shinobi before. As rare as they are it is surprising that I am facing one._' More and more bugs flew off into the field of battle. A kunai dropped down from right sleeve and tossed it at Kankuro as an experiment. The puppet moved up from its' position to block the kunai.

"To quick on the draw, kid!" The puppet user threw his arms out and the puppet shot forward at remarkable speeds. With a flick of the wrist from Kankuro the puppet's top right arm shot out at a high speed towards Shino. The Aburame heir jumped out of the way just in time to miss a poisoned spike shooting out of the puppet's arm, '_I should expect no less from one of Konoha's clan heirs. No matter how long he's been a Genin he's probably been training since he was old enough to wield a kunai._'

Shino landed a few feet away from where the puppet's arm struck, '_I can't keep dodging. I must think of something…_' Shino frowned when an idea came into his head. The last match between Naruto and Neji had shown him an idea, but he was dreading using something from the last match. He didn't really hate Naruto, but that didn't mean he liked the boy either. He was always so loud and he scared off the bugs he would find. Falling back, but never keeping his eyes off of that puppet. Two more of its arms shot in his direction, but when the arms neared him this time Kankuro pulled both his pinky fingers and a few slits opened up. Out of them a multitude of senbon's covered in a strange purple liquid.

One whizzed by and nearly cut his arm while it flew it threw his coat. Shino made it to the bushes with a sigh of relief. Slowly bugs crawled out of every crevice of his clothes; as they did they flew off into the surrounding foliage.

In the competitor's box Shikimaru was now holding up Naruto, but his attention was on the fight, '_Did Shino just copy this loud mouth?_' Naruto was coming to while Shikamaru was lost in his own thoughts about his match. It was one thing for someone such as Kiba to use Naruto's tactics, the two were similar in the Nara's eyes, but it was another for Shino Aburame to copy the loudmouth, '_What is this world coming to? This is all getting so troublesome!_'

"Shino fighting?" Naruto asked Shikamaru.

Shikamaru glanced at the groggy looking boy, "Yea, he's using one the tactics you used a few minutes ago." For his part Naruto just chuckled while stretching his limbs.

With a deep breath the blonde Genin looked down to see Kankuro standing around looking for Shino. He closed his eyes again thinking about who his next match will be against.

Kankuro started making his way to the bushes that Shino was hiding in, "It's kind of pathetic that you've taking to hiding away while our match is going on!" Kankuro called out, but stopped when he heard the bushes rustle. He went to go make a move towards where he heard the rustling until Shino popped up behind the older boy with two kunai in each of his hands, "Too simple!" Kankuro waved his hands and they shot forward stabbing the Aburame heir in the head and stomach.

A few people in the crowd gasped until Shino started dispersing into a large group of bugs. Behind Kankuro Shino appeared, "Hijutsu: Insect Sphere." The insects from the Shino started to swarm towards Kankuro.

"A bug clone?" to say that Kankuro was surprised by the move was an understatement, but it wasn't unknown by the puppet user. Kankuro had spent the past month working on his puppets and studying up on his opponent, "Clever, but not clever enough!" He pulled back his puppet then pulled in his thumbs. He did this four times and four semi-large balls shot out from all four arms. They exploded covering the area in large smokescreen.

Shino jumped back to the wall and stood on the side of it watching for any signs of movement while his bugs reformed near him. While he was waiting one of the arms from the puppet was speeding towards him. Shino waited until it was near him to see what it would do. The arm bent and started spinning, revealing a large blade that sped towards Shino. The Aburame heir jumped down into the smoke to avoid the blade, '_A trap? More than likely or maybe even an ambush?_' Two more arms came out of nowhere sending Shino to the ground, "Hijutsu: Insect Sphere!"

The swarm of insects flew through the smoke until Shino heard Kankuro yell out, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?" The smoke cleared showing Kankuro was slowly becoming covered in Shino's Kikaichu, "WHEN DID YOU DO THIS!?"

Shino pushed up his sunglasses, "When I was in the bushes I released a few females from my hive into the battlefield that made their way onto you." The black haired boy put his hands in his coat pocket, "The female Kikaichu release a pheromone that I, and the males of the hive, can pick up on. Your smokescreen not only acted in your favor, but mine as well." Shino's swarm flew off of Kankuro and back into Shino's coat, "It will take a day for your chakra to recover. Why? Because my Kikaichu ate away at your Chakra." Shino walked away from Kankuro while Yugao called the battle in favor of Shino Aburame.

In the stands Baki looked down at his student with gritted teeth, '_That fool! I'll have to get him out of Konoha now!_' The Jonin from Sunagakure watched his student walk off the field then turned to another Jonin from his village and nodded. The signal for the attack was coming soon, "_Baki, the Otogakure Shinobi are nearly in position. Our own forces are in position and we're waiting for the signal!_"

"_Very good…_" Baki just smirked when he heard of this new development for the invasion.

The Kage Booth was not nearly abuzz with activity as the spectator stands, but something was still brewing between the two Kage level Shinobi, "It would appear that you have many talented Shinobi, Sandaime-sama!" The fake Yondaime Kazekage stated. He didn't look fazed by Kankuro's loss in the slightest.

"As do you Yondaime-sama." The Sandaime was beginning to find Orochimaru's performance as the Kazekage extremely dull. Hiruzen looked down at the competitor's box where Naruto, Shino, Shikamaru, and The Kazekage's daughter, Temari of the Sand, stood or sat down waiting for the next match to be announced.

Jiraiya knew that that this wasn't the best time to be peeping on women, but he was nervous. Knowing that there was a chance that his sensei would die today along with the massive loss of life that war wrought in its wake. What made him even more nervous were Old Man Sarutobi's choices as Hokage candidates. While he was all for Tsunade Senju becoming The Godaime it was the other choice that made him a bit more nervous. He also knew that Sarutobi's choice was extremely complicated. That being said this man _was_ a powerful Shinobi, yet it was still an overly complicated situation if he was actually made Godaime.

That man was an excellent deterrent from future wars, though. Jiraiya watched the women bathe halfheartedly, almost as if he didn't care for naked women. Just as he was about to leave a man with a Kusogakure headband appeared behind him, "I was to report to you as soon as our forces are in position, sir!"

"Wait until Otogakure makes their move then blindside them. Stay hidden for now!" Before he could go on with his orders a wooden bucket came flying past him and hit the Shinobi from Kusa, "WHAT THE HELL!?" Another bucket came up and hit Jiraiya right in the head.

"QUIT PERVING AROUND, GEEZER!" A few of the women in the hot spring yelled in unison. Jiraiya stayed on his back to look up at the sky. It was such a beautiful day, too beautiful to wage war.

His thoughts turned to the finer details that needed to be worked out after the battle, but passed them off, '_Good luck, Naruto._'

After that exciting match the stadium was getting psyched for the next match, but for one Genin it was way too troublesome, "Will Shikamaru Nara and Temari of the Sand come down for their match!?" Yugao called out in the stadium. The blonde haired Temari made her way down to the bottom of the arena. As for Shikamaru he was still sitting in the competitor's box as if he didn't hear a word from the proctor.

Naruto was now rested and stretching when he heard Shikamaru's name being called for his match. Looking at The Nara heir sit as if nothing were happening pissed him off! Naruto ran up to him and grabbed his shoulder, "What do you think you're doing, Shikamaru?" Naruto asked with a smile.

"Sitting…" He answered dully. Naruto sighed then tossed him over the side of the wall into the arena, "DAMMIT, NARUTO, WHY'DYA DO THAT!?" To say that Shikamaru was pissed was an understatement. He was now in the process of loathing Naruto completely.

"Let the match… BEGIN!"

Shikamaru and Temari stared at each other until Shikamaru sighed and tried walking away from the fight to the stands, "Look I don't want to fight a girl so can we just call this match in your favor? It'd be troublesome if it continues any longer…" Shikamaru turned his back to her then started walking away.

To say that Temari, and to a greater extent Ino, was pissed was an understatement. Ino started screaming at her teammate, "DAMMIT, SHIKAMARU, GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR AND FIGHT THAT WOMAN!" She ran up to the railing closest to the arena, "START FIGHTING OR I MIGHT JUST GO DOWN THERE AND KICK YOUR ASS MYSELF!"

Not wanting to deal with Ino continuing to scream at me he stopped then turned around to see his opponent call out, "Sickle Weasel Jutsu!" A gust of wind slammed Shikamaru a few feet away.

"Damn… troublesome… blondes!" This was going to be too troublesome!


	7. Chapter 7

Here we go with the Shikamaru's battle and the beginning of a war. The story starts picking up speed now because along with the first arc halfway done. And two characters, well three, finally show up!

For those that wonder about Kakashi's role in this chapter don't worry. It will be expanded the next chapter. It's slightly filler, but yea… I will dedicate the next few chapters to individual fights along with parts of those chapters showing the chaos in the village.

I thank Buterflypuss for pointing out my mistake on confusing Kusa with Kuso or vice-versa! Bleiddianmusic the next chapter is here! I now say thanks again to you reviewers, readers, and followers!

Chapter 7: The Strategist, The Avenger, and The Berserker.

To say that Shikamaru was having a piss poor day, in his opinion, was an understatement. Thrown in the arena by a blonde, nagged by a blonde, and thrown around like a ragdoll by a blonde! Blondes truly were the bane of his short existence, along with his mother. He truly did wonder if there was some god out there that truly hated him. Deciding it best just to lay back and watch the clouds while the crowd murmured amongst themselves Shikamaru began to enjoy the few seconds of peace.

The world would be a much more peaceful if life was just sitting back watching the clouds. No war would exist, but sadly that wasn't possible in this world. He looked over at his opponent with a dull look that showed nothing, except maybe some disdain for getting into a fight with a girl, "Hey girl! I hope you know that it would be pointless fighting you!" He sat up and got into a thinking pose.

Ino looked down at her teammate thinking of murder. Was he really doing this now? Damn him! She went to go down into the arena until a hand grabbed onto her shoulder, "Please don't hurt him yet." Ino turned her head to see her chain smoking sensei, Asuma Sarutobi, son of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"BUT, ASUMA-SENSEI, ALL HE'S DOING IS JUST SITTING THERE!" Asuma smirked at the thirteen year old. He knew his student was coming up with something that would do the trick in winning this match.

"That's true, Ino, but he's thinking right now." Over time, as Team Ten continued on, Asuma had learned one thing about his lazy student, he was a genius. He looked at least ten steps ahead of his opponents before making a move and as sure as he was his father was Hokage he knew that Shikamaru had it in him to win this match because of his mind.

Munching could be heard coming from the other side of Asuma. The chunky teammate of Team Ten known as Choji Akimichi smiled down at his best friend, "He's still going to forfeit!" Ino looked over at the eating Choji.

Even Asuma looked down at his student, "Why do you say that?" Both Ino and Asuma were curious as to how Choji came to that conclusion.

"That's just how he is!" Choji would say no more as he continued munching on his bag of chips. Asuma couldn't deny that this would be something that Shikamaru would do, but he still knew that his student would win this.

Sakura didn't want to say much, but was curious about Team Ten's sensei suddenly appearing, "Asuma-Sensei, when did you get here?"

"I'm more curious why you weren't here earlier, Sensei!" Ino was genuinely curious as to where her smoke stack sensei had been, along with her other teammate.

Asuma took a nice, long drag from his cigarette and ruffled his only female student's hair, much to her embarrassment, "I was simply trying to gauge how the fights were going from a different angle!"

"He was with Kurenai-Sensei when I found him!" Choji grinned at Ino while their sensei blushed.

"You and Kurenai-Sensei?" Sakura asked with a Cheshire grin she shared with Ino. It was a well-known rumor that Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi had been seen hanging around each other, but they vehemently denied even being together. It frustrated more than a few people, Hiruzen included, that they were so shy.

Shikamaru got up from his position with his eyes closed, "I apologize ahead of time before hand… It's troublesome, but I'll fight you so that bastard and harpy will get off my back…" Naruto grit his teeth in a smile while Ino looked ready to beat the life out of Shikamaru, "This fight will end in five minutes." The dull expression on the lazy Genin's face seemed to get duller.

Temari chuckled; she was finally getting an opponent. She started to charge at the lazy Nara then lifted up her fan as soon as she was near and finally brought it down hard against the ground to hit crush him, "If you won't attack I will!" After the dust cloud settled after her attack she saw that there was nothing there.

Shikamaru smiled a knowing smile, "I don't even know why you're so enthusiastic about fighting me, but it's troublesome!" This riled up the Sunagakure Kunoichi a little, "Shadow Imitation Jutsu!" An inky, black shadow started racing towards Temari.

Temari started racing backwards, '_He used that Jutsu against that sound girl! I have to see something!' _Temari kept an eye how far his Jutsu would go as she raced back even further. She finally stopped more than a few yards away, "So your Jutsu can only stretch so far?" With a knowing smirk she jumped into the air, "Sickle Weasel Jutsu!" Another powerful gust rushed at Shikamaru.

The lazy Genin merely ran at the impossibly strong gust until he began using the hand signs, "Kawarimi!" Shikimaru replaced himself with a twig near Temari. Shikamaru then brought out a Kunai from his side pouch and went for a downward slash against his opponent, but she dodged him. The lazy Genin quickly went through the hand signs for Shadow Imitation Jutsu.

Temari just smirked and retreated knowing fully well that it would never get her if she retreated far back. Shikamaru retaliated with his own smirk as he once again used Shadow Imitation Jutsu. The shadow attached itself to the shadow from the kunai was making on the ground. Temari dodged the kunai, but the Jutsu attached itself to her and she couldn't move.

Shikamaru was in the same position as he couldn't move either. Both stood stock still for over a minute until Shikamaru looked up at the crowd, in particular the rest of Team Ten, "I can't go on, proctor." With that he released the Jutsu and started walking away.

Yugao looked at the Nara boy and asked, "Are you sure you wish to surrender?" She was completely surprised by the turn of events, but realized something; Shikamaru looked weaker than he did at the beginning of the match.

"I'm almost out of Chakra. I can't go on." Was all the Nara boy said before walking through the exit that led to the spectator's gallery with his hands in his pocket. Temari looked pissed off, but didn't say anything.

'_Smart move._' Asuma thought to himself, "Seems that you were right Choji!" Choji just smiled. Ino on the other hand just sighed knowing that even she could have predicted this outcome.

'_Smart boy, I wonder how far he will go in his career?_' Sarutobi thought to himself. He looked around to see that two familiar figures were standing on the roof of the stadium, "It seems that Kakashi has passed on his bad habit to his student." He sighed to himself in annoyance at the silver haired man.

The disguised Orochimaru looked over at Sasuke Uchiha with a cruel smile growing on his face. Soon he would have his new vessel and soon his former sensei would die in the cruelest way. It made the Sannin happy to no end that his plans were finally coming to fruition right before his eyes. He wanted those blessed eyes of Sasuke's and he would have them!

"Would Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha make their way to the Arena for their match?" Yugao announced to the crowd's smiles and cheers. Although the match they wanted to see was Sasuke Uchiha versus Gaara of the Desert this would be just as good.

Ebisu looked down from his spot near the top of the stadium bleachers with a smile. He wondered who had been taught better in the past month, Naruto or Sasuke. What really made him wonder was when this war would start.

Naruto cracked his neck as he started to get worked up himself. He had been waiting to fight in his next match since the middle of Shikamaru's match. Hearing that he was fighting his teammate, Sasuke Uchiha, made his entire body tingle with excitement. Shino turned his attention from the last Uchiha to Naruto, "Naruto Uzumaki, if I may?"

"If you may what?" Naruto was quite confused by the Aburame heir.

"I was just going to give you tidings of good luck. Why? Because Sasuke is, to put it in Shikamaru's words, a very troublesome individual." No more was said by the quiet Genin.

"Shino, I think that you're a strange person, but thanks, I think." Naruto didn't have much time to dwell on why Shino was wishing him luck, he had a match to start.

Naruto had jumped into the arena and ran up to Yugao with a big smile on his face, "Now where is that bastard?" He looked around for his rival, but he couldn't even catch a single look of where the Uchiha survivor was at. As he kept looking he felt that he was being glared at. He didn't know where the glare was coming from, but it stood out from all the other people staring.

He looked up to see his raven haired teammate standing next to his sensei with a smirk and a glare. Sasuke was wearing all black with bandages covering his arms and legs, "I'm right here, loser!" Sasuke felt a hand grab his shoulder. He looked up at Kakashi who used The Body Flicker Jutsu to appear a few feet from Naruto on the floor of the arena.

Both rivals looked at each other both sporting smirks while their sensei looked between the two with a thoughtful look. He looked at Naruto with an inquisitive look that made Naruto look at his sensei with a queer look, "What is it, Kakashi-Sensei?"

Kakashi merely eye smiled at his young student, "You've changed, Naruto." Was all he said before making his way up into the stands. It was now Sasuke's turn to look strangely at his rival.

"Why the jugs?" Sasuke was genuinely curious as to Naruto's getup. It made him wonder what tricks he had up his sleeve, but he would figure that out when the time came.

Naruto just smiled at his rival, "That's a secret!"

Yugao watched the two before stepping back, "Are you two ready?" Both nodded, "Good; the final match of the first round of this tournament will begin… NOW!" She made her way back a little more. Both continued to stare each other down.

Those that stood guard outside were quite jealous of those that got to go watch the fights instead of just waiting around. Two such guards stood at the very entrance trying to reason why they were stationed outside instead of inside. While they questioned they barely made out a scream above the chatter and cheering coming from the stadium. The two guards prepared for anything to come, but were surprised by what came walking up.

A boy was walking slowly towards the entrance to the stadium with sand slowly escaping a gourd on his back. His red hair was messy and black rings surrounded his eyes. As he breathed one would think that chuckling could be heard. Two Chunin guards stood out in front of the main entrance of the stadium watching for anything suspicious. As the boy neared the two both guards looked at him, "Hey, kid, where're you from?" The guard on the right asked the boy.

"Is he from Suna?" The guard on the left asked his partner. Before an answer could come to both questions the guard on the right was crushed by an arm of sand. Blood splattered all over the left guards body and the wall, it made the other Chunin want to throw up, but before he could even do that he too was crushed.

"Sasuke… Uchiha… Your life… is… **MINE**!" As he started to scream he began to release a ton of killer intent across the area.

It flooded the entire stadium making most the civilians and some of the greener ninja nearly pass out. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, then in the general vicinity of the source. Maniacal laughing could be heard coming from the entrance to the upper stands.

Yugao unsheathed her katana from her back and looked towards the Hokage for orders. She knew of the impending attack, but even though she was Anbu even she didn't know how it would start. The entire village seemed to pause with gaited breath for the entire time as the boy known as Gaara of The Desert made his way out into the stadium with his entire right arm transformed into a gnarled, clawed arm.

Finally Gaara stood in full view of everyone, but he neither looked at the audience nor anyone except for Sasuke Uchiha, "**I have come to prove my existence, Sasuke Uchiha**!" Gaara jumped off from where he was, "**Sand Shurikan**!" He waved his sand arm and Shurikan made entirely of sand sped towards Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto grew wide-eyed at the incoming weapons. He started running away until one of the Shurikan hit him in the left leg; he hobbled a little bit before falling down on his chest, "Dammit!" He turned around to see more Shurikan on their way, even though their target, Sasuke, was high up on the wall by now. The blonde haired Genin popped open one the smaller jugs of water, drank it, then went through the hand signs for, "Water Style: Gunshot Jutsu!" More than a few bullets of water shot at Gaara, but only one hit the red haired boy.

The water bullet hit Gaara right in his left arm. It went straight through his sand armor and out the other side with blood dripping from the wound furiously, "**B-B-B-B-BLOOODD! MY BLOOOD!**" Gaara stumbled back then started screaming so loud that anyone near the boy was covering their ears. Sasuke had made his way next to Gaara, but was too stunned by the red haired Genin's screams.

Baki looked at Gaara with gritted teeth. He then turned to Temari, who had made her way to him in the chaos, and angrily ordered, "Temari take Gaara away from here! He wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place…." He turned to see some of the more experienced Shinobi and Kunoichi turning their gazes to him and a few of the other ninja from Sunagakure, "Run now!"

Hiruzen's gaze moved from Gaara to the still disguised Orochimaru. He wondered where he went wrong with his student, but put that to the side to see an angry look covering his stolen face, "Something not going according to plan Orochimaru?" He rested his head on his fist with a stone serious face. The Hokage Guard Platoon each pulled a Kunai, but the aging Hokage waved them off, "I knew the moment I heard you had returned to Konoha that we would be fighting."

"Ku-ku-ku, Sarutobi-Sensei, you seem like you prepared for this, but even Konoha can't fight off two armies at once!" The snake-like man simply chuckled and tore off his face showing off his long tongue, "Not only do I have the upper hand in this war, but I also have a Jutsu that will send this pathetic village spiraling into the pits of despair!" He cried out.

Indeed as if on cue all of Konohagakure erupted in violence as many of the ninja from Otogakure and Sunagakure appeared from various points and attacked. On the walls more than a few giant snake summons slammed against them as if they had gone mad while in other parts of the village there were small fights breaking out between squads of Chunin led by Jonin.

Small explosions and screams of terror reached the ears of Sarutobi; he grimaced at the thoughts of enemy ninja running around his village trying to kill his villagers, "You may think you hold the upper hand, but today is the day I amend my mistake by letting you live all those years ago! For your crimes against Konohagakure, nay the world! I will end you…" A gigantic black staff was swung out of nowhere, "NOW!" Another Sarutobi appeared from behind in full black battle armor from back when he was younger. Orochimaru was sent flying towards the roof where a giant crash occurred.

The Hokage sitting disappeared in a poof, revealing it to be a shadow clone, "Genma! Iwashi! Raido! Take the dignitaries somewhere safe!" All three sported grimaces, but bowed nonetheless, "You three have done me proud!" The Hokage jumped off in the direction of Orochimaru.

Genma looked down to see that someone from Anbu Black-ops had cast a Genjutsu on the crowd that had put them to sleep. More than a few of so called civilians stood up and with one hand sign they transformed into Otogakure ninja.

The war had finally begun…


	8. Chapter 8

You know I had a fun time writing this chapter. This saddened me writing it, at the same time it brought me joy, and finally…. ANGER! I had such a hard time writing! I tried to get this out sooner, but because I wanted to do this part justice I banged my head against the wall so many times at what has happened with this chapter. I lost half this chapter once, then I forgot to save it a few times, and finally I just got burned out when it came to writing, but here it is. I have to thank my readers with your patience and I hope I made you guys and gals happy with this chapter!

I have to say that some people might get mad at me for the next confession; I think that Sasuke is just like Danzo, if not more extreme.

It's sad to see Naruto end, but I'm glad it ended with my favorite pairing! On another note I have to say that some people have no life. I heard that a group of borderline psycho's wanted to ban Naruto in the U.S. until Kishimoto released an alternative ending for the series where he ended up with Sakura…. REALLY? People are strange!

I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 8: When an Era ends.

Orochimaru stood up, albeit begrudgingly, from the crater he had made when his former Sensei hit him. His jaw looked somewhat unhinged and he was sure that his right arm was shattered by the force of the impact. He had thoroughly underestimated the decrepit old fool's strength, '_I would be disappointed with anything less, Sensei!_'

The snake Sannin smirked when he felt the rush of wind coming from above him. He looked up in time to dodge the downward strike of the adamantine staff. The strike broke through the remains of the roof into one of the rooms in the stadium. Sarutobi looked up at his former student with a glare as his staff turned into a large, white monkey in a puff of smoke, "What have you become, Orochimaru?" The old Hokage asked as his former student opened his mouth wide. It kept getting wider until two hands spread out Orochimaru's mouth open until a fully healed version of himself popped out.

"An immortal, dear Sensei! I have risen above everything else, including pathetic past ties!" Orochimaru's hands became a blur as Orochimaru started his counterattack, "It's time to show this wretched village the true meaning of despair! Its own beloved Hokage will bring this village's destruction!" He started going through the hand signs of a wicked Jutsu. A horrid creation that went against all life stood for, "Summoning Jutsu: Impure World Resurrection!" Three coffins starting rising from the ground.

For Hiruzen this was the final nail in the coffin. Orochimaru was no longer his student; he was no longer human, even. The aging Hokage closed his eyes and exhaled, "Anbu! Erect the barrier!" To say that Orochimaru was caught off guard was an understatement. He couldn't understand why The Sandaime would willingly cut off any sort of help or reinforcements.

"Ninja Arts: Double Dome Barrier!" Eight Anbu made a wide circle then created a barrier to block them inside the barrier along with the two Kage level combatants then a barrier beside them to protect them from the damage to come.

As the three caskets rose from the ground Sarutobi stood back with a small smirk on his face. He knew he faced insurmountable odds when facing both Hashirama and Tobirama Senju along with his former student Orochimaru, but he couldn't help to smile that he wouldn't be facing Minato Namikaze. Due to Minato previously using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal away the Kyuubi it meant that the Shinigami held his soul now. He couldn't be summoned by The Impure World Resurrection.

Orochimaru grit his teeth to the point where he heard a small crunch. That old man really knew how to piss him off, but what made him go over the edge was the fact that it was _Sarutobi_ and not _himself_ that had entrapped them to where they couldn't escape. He looked at the three coffins that had risen and reminded him that he still had his trump cards, "I want to know something Sensei, why?" The three lids fell down revealing a man with long black hair, cracked, ashy skin, and a somewhat peaceful look, Hashirama Senju, a man with short, silver hair that wore predominantly blue armor and three thin lines on his chin and both cheeks, and finally was a man with spiky, blonde hair and long white coat, but the ash like skin blew off to reveal some man with most of his face covered by a cloth.

"Why, what?" Sarutobi had his eyebrow raised.

"Why are you so dead set on fighting me? You're old! You're being a fool!" He laughed maniacally even as he saw Minato crumbling down, "Fine! I'll just kill you and be do-" He was cut off once again by a mass Shurikan attack.

The Sandaime was done conversing with his former student. He went to crush down the two corpses before they could start moving, but Orochimaru stopped him with, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Sarutobi was launched a few feet back before jamming his staff into the ground, "Now it is time to reintroduce the previous two Hokage! The Shodaime and founder of Konohagakure, Hashirama Senju!" The cruel, vicious snake flicked his tongue as a tall man in his thirties walked out with long, black hair and cracked ashy skin. He openly opened his eyes revealing dark, unnatural eyes, this was Hashirama Senju.

"Finally is the Nidaime, Tobirama Senju!" Tobirama Senju had spiky, silver hair with a head protector on the sides of his face and forehead. Below his eyes and on the middle of his chin were red lines and, much like Hashirama, he wore armor except Tobirama's was blue and black with white fur around the collar. His skin and eyes were exactly like Hashirama's.

Both took in their surroundings as they came to grips with being revived, "It seems someone has stolen my Summoning Jutsu." There was no hint of emotion in the Nidaime's voice if any emotion could be seen he hid it well, "Monkey, who did this?"

The Sandaime, for all his years of seeing outrageous events, was sort of reeling from this. Of course he had heard about this Jutsu that messed with the laws of nature from Tobirama when he was still perfecting it, but to see it work, it boggle him, "My former student, Orochimaru."

There were very few ninja alive right now that could say how strong the Shodaime and Nidaime were back in the past, but their strength was legendary. Hashirama was known as The God of Shinobi while Tobirama was commonly held as originator to many a Kinjutsu. It couldn't have been easy for Orochimaru to hold them and the two zombies weren't making it easy for him, especially Hashirama. He had taken to sitting on the roof crossed legged while Tobirama was running ideas on how to end this through his head.

With a smirk Orochimaru went and stuck a kunai with a seal attached to it into Tobirama's head. Then he went to go towards Hashirama…

The market district of Konoha was quiet compared to the rest of the war torn village, but it was merely a false peace. It was quiet due to the death that permeated the area all in part to the group known as Root and the organization's leader, Danzo Shimura.

Danzo Shimura was many things; he was cunning, he was elderly, he was even retired, but no one could ever call him weak. He stood in the middle of a group of dead Otogakure ninja, "I want this mess cleaned up Captain." His cane was heard tapping against the road along with the sounds of bodies being dragged against cement, "Sai," an Anbu operative with a tiger mask and regular Anbu armor appeared in a puff of smoke and leaves, "Find the Genin Uzumaki and provide backup if necessary."

"Perimeters, Danzo-sama?" The thirteen year old operative asked with same amount of emotion as Danzo had.

The elder paused for a moment then said, "Genin Uzumaki must live along with Sasuke Uchiha. I care not for any others," The sight of a large two headed snake gave Danzo pause, but he merely narrowed his eyes, "But I want the Ichibi Jinchuriki left alive and brought to me." With that Sai phased out of the area and towards the last known location of Naruto Uzumaki.

-Roof of Arena-

The battle was intense for everyone there. Orochimaru and Sarutobi were throwing intense Jutsu after intense Jutsu at each other while clashing once in a while with their Sword of the Kusanagi and King Enma's Adamantine Staff form, respectively. On the other side of the dome was a battle only a few could dream of, water against wood and one could say that they were almost evenly matched. It was a battle of Kage level and beyond.

Hashirama had needed some time, but even if his power was halved he still had enough willpower to overpower the control seal, "Water Style: Water Colliding Wave!" Without a source of water nearby the Nidaime let loose a torrent of water from his mouth that soon turned into a roaring wave of water that charged at the Shodaime.

"Wood Style: Wood Locking Wall!" A large, wooden dome of interlocking wood formed in front of the Shodaime as a rush of water destroyed the man-made area around them. The water that had been released by Tobirama's attack had settled creating a small lake around them, "Wood Style: Great Forest Jutsu!" Hashirama stepped up on the water and away he went away from the shelter then pointed his arms at his brother when all of a sudden two trees grew out of his arms at an alarming speed. It slammed Tobirama against the roof, hard.

"Water Style: Water Fang Bullet!" Five swirling fangs of water sprouted up and tried piercing Hashirama. The Shodaime had some time to dodge, but the constant flow of water fangs made it tough. He couldn't help it when he got hit in both legs. The water seemed to hold in Hashirama's wound until it started to slowly drag him under, "Water Style: Rising Water Slicer!"

The Jutsu that Tobirama had sent at his brother had split the Shodaime in two under the water, but being an immortal had its perks. No sooner had Hashirama been bisected he had already started his next offensive, "Wood Style Hijutsu: Nativity of a World of Trees!" Roots started to fester all around the battleground as trees burst forth from the roof and water. The sun was soon blocked out by the sheer amount of trees.

Tobirama had been hit by one of the growing trees, but had yet to even counter before Hashirama had decided to entrap his brother, "Wood Style: Tree Bind Flourishing Burial!" The tree that held the Nidaime came to life as it grew over him until only his head and chest were exposed. Knowing Tobirama couldn't make another move Hashirama jumped over to see how Hiruzen was holding up.

The Sandaime was having it rough, what with being in his late sixties and fighting a battle against his student, who had a couple decades on him. Taking in a breath of air Sarutobi stood back thinking of his remaining actions. He knew that there were few choices left; he had to do the same Jutsu that the Yondaime had used on his last night of life.

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" The Sandaime unleashed a devastating attack that made a dragon head made of earth appear and fired balls of mud at a high speed at the treacherous snake.

Orochimaru retaliated with his own dragon, "Lightning Style: Lightning Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" It seemed that the Snake Sannin's Jutsu was starting to push back The Professor's.

'_It would seem that I have rusted in this old age.'_ With a deep breath The Professor launched another Jutsu, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!" The Jutsu hit the bullets of lightning, cancelling it out then sending the snake back into one of the many trees that had grown around them.

Orochimaru sneered at the decrepit old man. He shouldn't still be as strong as he is, but he should have never underestimated the man who had taken up the title of The God of Shinobi and earned the nickname The Professor. An idea came into his head, a terrible plan wrought of malice.

As the two went at another clash something felt off to the elder man, _'Son of a Bitch…'_ What he thought was a sword turned out to be nothing more than a snake with a Genjutsu over it to mask it as the sword, but the real one had found its way lodged into his gut. It was over now, there would be no other choice, but use that single, horrid Jutsu.

Enma turned back into his monkey form and then kicked the snake back into the roof, "Hiruzen!" He pulled the sword out of his old partner. The monkey king knew that it was only a matter of time until the poison from the legendary sword killed him.

Hiruzen stood in a stupor in a minute as he thought about his position. He knew that he had just a little life left in him, but he would go out with a bang. Before finishing this battle he took his final look towards the village he had lived in and ran for the past sixty-nine years, _'What makes a family?'_ He watched as a giant three headed snake attacked a giant toad in the distance, _'It most certainly has connections with blood, but I think it is more!'_ An explosion shook the village as a sand Tanuki was viciously mauled by a single tailed fox, _'I have watched many young Ninja live and die for this village; making sure that the generation after them would have a chance to live and grow!'_ He took in the scent of blood and death he had begrudgingly become accustomed to, _'I have looked on through the trenches of war and wondered if it was worth it to see lovers part with their beloved and parents part with children, never to reunite in the end!_

'_But I refuse to let this day end with the destruction of so many lives without a cause! I have failed many, but I believe that I have done right by many more…'_ Sarutobi coughed up some blood as he struggled to stay on his feet, _'Naruto, Konohamaru… forgive me for not seeing you become Hokage, but I hope what I have done today makes up for it!'_ He laughed at the thought of seeing Konohamaru following Naruto around, arguing about whom was to be the next Hokage then turned to see Orochimaru smirking at him.

Enma knew that this was the end of the road for their partnership. The two had been partners since Hiruzen had been handed the Monkey summoning contract from his father, Sasuke Sarutobi. They had fought more than a few wars and had defended this village countless times, but he knew that Sarutobi was done for. With a heavy heart he neared the dying Hokage, "I'm sorry I couldn't stop the sword, Hiruzen!" He was about to fly into a rage, but Hiruzen held up his hand.

"It is quite alright…. Friend…." The Dying Hokage didn't need to look at his old partner as he went through a set of hand signs, _'Snake, Boar, Ram, Rabbit, Dog, Rat, Bird, Horse, Snake!'_ He clapped once then uttered, "Fuuinjutsu: Dead Demon Consuming Scroll!" The visage of a ghostly being appeared behind Sarutobi as the old man used another Jutsu, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Two clones of Sarutobi popped into existence.

Orochimaru didn't know what to think about what he was seeing. He had a small thought, but it wasn't good. The first and last time had heard of this Jutsu was when the Yondaime Hokage had used it against the Kyuubi thirteen years ago. The snake stared at the ghost behind his old sensei with some horror. The ghost had a large white cloth draped over a rotting horned corpse. Clawed hands held onto to prayer beads while its pearly fangs held a tonto and to top it off was long, bushy white hair.

Hashirama merely watched on as he knew this would be over soon. In his hand he held onto a seed for one reason or another he decided to make it grow into a dandelion that he blew on, making the seeds disperse around him, '_To the next generation!'_ A clone of Sarutobi walked up to him and grabbed onto his soul, pulling it from the body. When the soul was out the ghostly reaper gently took the tonto from his mouth only to bring it down quickly, severing the connection that the soul had to the body.

In a pile of ashes laid a black haired girl around the age of fourteen. On the clones body was the Uzumaki clan's symbol and kanji symbols on the outside. The second clone went up to the restrained Nidaime and did the same. This left only Orochimaru and the original Sarutobi.

Orochimaru had been in a state of shock as he saw everything unraveling around him. Even if he made it out of this alive Jiraiya had to be undoubtedly waiting on the outside of the barrier along with a few squads of Anbu. It wasn't until Sarutobi had appeared right in front of him that he tried, and failed, to react. It was too late as his old sensei had managed to grab on to his arms with an iron grip, "It ends here, Orochimaru!" He sneered and tried to kick the wounded man, "Your scheming, and your life, is over!"

Orochimaru felt pain as his soul was ripped from his body, but something happened. Behind the old man was the snake's trusted servant, Kabuto Yakushi. The barrier that had been around the battling Shinobi had been taken down, not by an order, but by Kabuto replacing one of the Anbu and forming the barrier with them. When he had seen that his master was losing he released his part of the Jutsu and jumped in to save Orochimaru.

Kabuto stabbed the Sandaime repeatedly with a kunai, but Sarutobi would not let go. Due to this unfortunate event Sarutobi only managed to pull Orochimaru's arms out of his body before the reaper cut them off, "AHHHHHHHHH!" Orochimaru screamed, "KABUTO ORDER… THE RETREAT!" Kabuto used a tiger hand sign to set off a few flares around the village. Before anyone made it to the two they had disappeared into wisps of smoke.

Jiraiya and dozen assorted ninja had made it to the scene, but there was only one person standing near the body of the dying Hokage. The man was in an Anbu uniform and he sported black hair, which was put up into a pony tail, and weasel mask, "…I leave the rest to you…" Jiraiya heard his sensei say before Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, took his final breath with a smile as he had an answer to his earlier question, _'This… is… family…'_

Many ninja surrounded the dead Hokage, but what intrigued them more was the Anbu standing next to Sarutobi's body. More than a few veterans slowly recognized the mask and figure before them, with a few of them quaking, "I-It can't be…"

The man removed his mask revealing a very familiar figure, this crowd pull out all types of weapons, "Itachi Uchiha!" Inoichi Yamanaka exclaimed.

Shikaku put down his weapon, but kept it tight nonetheless, "The prodigal son returns…"


End file.
